PERFORMANCE AND PROTEOLYTIC ENZYME ACTIVITY OF THE SUCKLING PIGLET CREEP-FED AT ONE OR THREE WEEKS OF AGE

A "split-litter" technique was used with 19 litters of suckling piglets from birth to 5 weeks of age to determine the effects of providing creep-feed from 1 or 3 weeks compared with controls given no creep-feed. Measurements included growth, feed and water intake, hematocrit, carcass composition and trypsin and chymotrypsin activity of the pancreas and intestinal digesta from 3- and 5-week old piglets. Daily gain by piglets creep-fed at 1 week appeared to be greater than that by piglets creep-fed at 3 weeks. At 5 weeks, the hematocrit of control piglets was below that of those creep-fed from 1 week (P < 0.05) and 3 weeks of age, but the levels of all piglets were below the 1-week values. Early, compared with no creep-feeding increased by 12 and 3% the trypsin and decreased by 7 and 5% the chymotrypsin activities of the pancreas at 3 and 5 weeks of age, respectively. Creep-feeding increased the trypsin and chymotrypsin (P < 0.05) activity of the digesta from 5-week old piglets.