Peat Pellets as Enrichment Material for Weaned Piglets

We aimed to explore the effect of 8 mm peat pellets as enrichment material for weaned piglets. A total of 288 piglets were allocated to one of two treatments: peat pellets (PPs) or chopped straw (CS) as edible enrichment. Twelve pigs were housed per pen, with 12 weaner pens per treatment. Pigs were weighed at day 0, 9, 14, and 28 post-weaning. Faecal consistency was recorded 3 times a week. Piglet behaviour was observed at days 8 and 18, and damage on ears and tail were scored weekly. More cups of edible enrichment were provided to PP pens than to CS pens between day 0-14 to ensure ad libitum availability (p = 0.04). On day 18, PP piglets showed greater exploratory interaction with the edible enrichment than CS piglets (p = 0.045). PPs improved performance in the early post-weaning period, resulting in a higher initial feed intake (p = 0.0498) and growth (p = 0.007) of newly weaned piglets between days 0 and 9, and improved faecal scores between days 14 and 28 (p = 0.007). At the end of the study, piglets had improved body weight uniformity (p = 0.04) and tended to have a lower prevalence of tail damage (p = 0.07) when provided with PPs versus CS. In addition, PP piglets tended to spend less time on ear biting (p = 0.06) on day 8 than CS piglets. PPs are proposed as suitable enrichment material and were associated with improved zootechnical performance and faecal consistency in weaned piglets.