WEANING OF PIGS - DUODENAL MYOELECTRICAL ACTIVITY DURING THE CHANGE FROM SOWS MILK TO SOLID FEED

Duodenal electromyography (emg) was studied in conscious piglets durin g the suckling and postweaning period. In suckling piglets, emg showed regular, repeating migrating myoelectric complex (MMC) cycles, each o f which was composed of the classical phases I, II and III. During the early postweaning period (1-10 days) feeding with solid feed influenc ed the duodenal emg. The duration of phase I after weaning was signifi cantly shorter than that before weaning (3.3 vs. 10.6 min, P less than or equal to 0.01), representing a decrease in duration from 14.6 to 4 .6% of the whole MMC (P less than or equal to 0.01). On the other hand , phase II increased from 79.9 to 89.6% (P less than or equal to 0.01) after the change in diet. Feeding sow's milk did not disrupt the MMC pattern, however voluntary feed intake of solid feed induced continuou s spiking activity of the duodenum for a period of 124 min.