Effect of a warm and flexible piglet nest heating system—the warm water bed—on piglet behaviour, live weight management and skin lesions

The aim of this investigation was to develop and test a new heating system for young piglets. Video observations were recorded, once a week over a 24-h period, with the help of an infrared video technique. The recordings were analysed to determine how long the piglets would remain in the nest area. These observations were made in a choice test pen. The test pen equipped with the warm water bed was clearly preferred by piglets compared to all other pens with a heated lying area. In every trial more than half of the litter lay on the water bed between 64 and 77% of the 24-h period during the third to fifth day of age. Less than 1% of the piglets spent any time resting on the reference system during the same 24-h period. The time spent lying on the water bed decreased with the age of the piglets. A total of 1369 piglets were recorded in the boxes with the different heating systems (water bed, thermo plastic plates, micro-cellular foam mat and isolated concrete floor). Birth weight and live weight development were recorded separately for each piglet. The average weaning weight at the 28th day of life of all piglets was 7.57 kg. Piglets with a warm water bed showed a higher average weight (7.72 kg) than animals in pens with one of the other heating systems. The largest difference in weaning weight was recorded between piglets kept in pens with water bed and those kept in pens with isolated concrete floor and gas heating systems (7.26 kg). Analysis of the forelegs of the piglets skin lesions in the different pens at 1190 individuals showed that the pigs in the warm water bed exhibited the lowest instance of skin lesions. Piglets kept in farrowing pens with a concrete floor had the highest percentage of wounds on the forelegs. All treatments of each piglet and all losses were registered.