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The feeding behaviour of eight Pietrain boars (PP/M), eight Large White boars (LW/M) and nine barrows (LW/C), and six Meishan barrows (MS/C) was studied at three different stages of growth (S1, S2, S3) corresponding to average body weights (BW) of 23, 39 and 57 kg, respectively. The PP, LW and MS breeds were considered as lean, conventional and fat types of pigs, respectively. All animals were reared individually. The light pattern was 12 hours of artificial light. The type of pig significantly affected the daily voluntary feed intake (1659, 1746, 1970 and 1622 g/d in PP/M, LW/M, LW/C and MS/C, respectively). Daily number of meals was higher in PP/M (14.4) than in LW/M and LW/C (12.2 on average) and in MS/C (7.3) whereas meal size was lower in PP/M (125 g vs. 166 g in LW pigs and 250 g in MS/C). Feed intake increased linearly with BW; the increase was lower in PP/M and MS/C (+15 g per kg of BW gain) than in LW/M (+26 g per kg) and in LW/C (+35 g per kg). With increasing age, number of meals per day decreased. Simultaneously, their size increased but the increase was more important in MS/C than in other types of pigs. The pattern of feed intake was mainly diurnal and more pronounced with the increase of BW (57 and 66% of feed intake during the day at S1 and S3, respectively). The results obtained in the present experiment clearly indicate that differences observed in composition of BW gain between types of pigs are associated with differences in VFI but also with differences in feeding behaviour. |
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