Adaptation Physiology Group, Department of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Animal Production Systems Group, Department of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Sci Rep. 2021 Apr 1;11(1):7371. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-86765-3.
During weaning, piglets experience concurrent social, physical, and nutritional stressors. Consequently, piglets often have poor feed intake and display increased oral manipulative behaviours post-weaning, indicative of compromised welfare. Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) possess many attractive properties for pigs and could therefore function as effective edible enrichment, potentially alleviating weaning stress by facilitating exploration and promoting feed intake. In this study, pairs of piglets received a small amount of either live BSFL or wood shavings (8 pens/treatment) scattered throughout the pen twice a day for 11 days after weaning. Home-pen behaviour was scored by instantaneous scan sampling on day 2, 5 and 8, and behavioural responses to a novel environment and novel object were scored on day 10/11. Performance-related parameters were observed regularly. Larvae provisioning increased floor-directed exploration and decreased object-directed exploration, pig-directed oral manipulation, fighting and eating of pellets, and reduced neophobia towards a novel object. Pellet intake was significantly decreased by BSFL provisioning during day 4-11 post-weaning, although feed and net energy intake including BSFL never differed between treatments. BSFL provisioning did not influence piglet growth, feed efficiency, energy efficiency, and faecal consistency. To conclude, live BSFL provisioning positively affected post-weaning piglet behaviour while maintaining performance.
在断奶期间，仔猪会同时经历社会、身体和营养方面的压力。因此，仔猪通常采食量不佳，并在断奶后表现出更多的口腔探索行为，这表明其福利受到了损害。黑水虻幼虫（BSFL）具有许多对猪有吸引力的特性，因此可以作为有效的可食用性补充品，通过促进探索和提高采食量，潜在缓解断奶应激。在这项研究中，将每对仔猪放在一个围栏中，在断奶后第 2、5 和 8 天，每天分两次在围栏中散布少量活体 BSFL 或木屑（每个处理 8 个围栏）。在第 2、5 和 8 天，通过即时扫描采样对圈舍内行为进行评分，在第 10/11 天对仔猪对新环境和新物体的行为反应进行评分。定期观察与性能相关的参数。幼虫供给增加了地面定向探索，减少了物体定向探索、猪指向性口腔操作、打斗和颗粒料采食，并降低了对新物体的恐惧。在断奶后第 4-11 天，BSFL 供给显著降低了颗粒料采食量，但在整个试验期间，BSFL 处理与对照组之间的饲料和净能采食量没有差异。BSFL 供给并未影响仔猪的生长、饲料效率、能量效率和粪便稠度。综上所述，活体 BSFL 供给可改善断奶后仔猪的行为，同时维持其性能。
