Circadian rhythms and diurnal patterns in the feed intake behaviour of growing-finishing pigs.

ABSTRACT: The feeding behaviour of growing-finishing pigs is an important indicator of performance, health and welfare, but this use is limited by its large, poorly-understood variation. We explored the variation in basal feed intake of individual pigs by detecting circadian rhythms, extracting features of diurnal patterns and assessing consistency over time, from day-to-day and across age. Hourly feed intake data of individual pigs (n = 110) was obtained during one growing-finishing phase, using electronic feeding stations. We applied wavelet analysis to assess rhythms and a hurdle generalised additive model to extract features of diurnal patterns. We found that circadian rhythms could be detected during 58 ± 3% (mean ± standard error) of days in the growing-finishing phase (range 0-100%), predomin

SUBMITTER: Bus JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10519948 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature