The Effect of Wallow on Growth Performance of Pre-Pubertal Pigs in the South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

A study was carried out to determine the influence of wallow on the growth performance of growing pigs. Sixteen (16) pre-pubertal pigs (8 males and 8 females) of large white breed, aged three months were randomly assigned to two treatments. There were eight animals per group designated as treatment A = with wallow system and treatment B = without wallow system (control). They were fed the same diet for period of eight weeks. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of performance parameters namely feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio and efficiency revealed no significant differences (p>0.05) among the two treatment groups. In addition, growth parameters namely mean length, mean height and mean girth showed no significant differences (p>0.05) between the groups. It was therefore concluded that wallow has little or no effect on growth and performance parameters of growing pigs in southeastern Nigeria.