Milk based diets remain one of the most successful means of introducing early-weaned piglets to solid food. However, the increased costs of dried milk by-products has stimulated the trend towards later weaning and the use of cheaper diets based on vegetable proteins. Such diets are often associated with digestive disturbance and reduced performance which necessitate the use of anti-microbial growth promoters.

In this study, we examined the scope for using the choice-feeding system to enhance the health and performance of early weaned piglets fed low-cost diets by offering them free-access to feed ingredients which may be selected when there is a need to correct digestive disturbance.