Weaning of pigs: duodenal myoelectrical activity during the change from sow's milk to solid feed

Duodenal electromyography (emg) was studied in conscious piglets during the suckling and postweaning period. In suckling piglets, emg showed regular, repeating migrating myoelectric complex (MMC) cycles, each of which was composed of the classical phases I, II and III. During the early postweaning period (1-10 days) feeding with solid feed influenced the duodenal emg. The duration of phase I after weaning was significantly 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 continuous spiking activity of the duodenum for a period of 124 min.