A COMPARISON OF GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND FEEDING BEHAVIOUR IN CREOLE AND LARGE WHITE PIGS: PRELIMINARY RESULTS

摘要

On 70 Creole (CR) and 70 Large White (LW) pigs from day 100 to day 150 of age, measurements of daily feed intake and feeding behaviour were obtained by electronic feed dispensers under ad libitum conditions. The experiment was conducted in Guadeloupe(French West Indies, latitude 16°N, longitude 61 °W). Initial body weight were 32.9 ±6.1 kg and 42.1 ± 7.6 kg for CR and LW pigs, respectively. The CR pigs have lower daily feed intake (2001 vs 2167 g/d; p<0.01), lower growth rate (649 vs 869 g/d; p<0.01), higher feed conversion (3.1 vs 2.5 kg/kg; p<0,01), and higher backfat thickness gain (+ 7.7 vs+4.4 mm; p<0.01) than Large White pigs. The average number of meals was significantly lower (p<0,01) whereas their size was higher in CR pigs than in LWpigs (6,9 vs 8.4 meals/d and 318 vs 282 g/meal, respectively). The rate of feed intake was lower (23.6 vs 33.6 'This work was supported by the Guadeloupe Region and the European Union (FEOGA-FEDER) The authors which to acknowledge M. Naves for the Spanish translation of the abstract g/min; p<0.01) and the total ingestión time was higher (88,0 vs 67.3 min/d; p<0.05) in CR than in LW pigs. For both breeds, hourly feed intake peaked twice daily near sunrise and sunset. The peaks size were significantly lower (p<0.05) and the total time of feed occupation was higher (15:25 h vs 12:12 h; p<0.01) in Creole than in Large White pigs. Breed of pigs significantly affected the diurnal partition of feed intake: proportionately 75 and 69 percent of total feed intake occurred during the day in Large White and Creole pigs. In conclusion, this study confirms that the feed intake pattern of growing pigs is influenced by genotype of pigs,