Higher amounts of
undigested feed are found in the gastro-intestinal tract of
early weaned pigs compared to those weaned later. This is
likely to lead to increased proliferation of pathogenic bacteria
in the intestine of younger piglets due to fermentation of this
undigested feed( Etheridgeetal.,1984). It must,however,be
noted that,in the present study the effect of age at testing
could not be excluded (since all 3 groups were tested 10 days
postweaning, chronological age differed between the groups).