author(s)
Karuna Saikia, Girin Kalita, Shantanu Ghorai, Mridusmrita Buragohain, Kandarpa Boruah, Kanak Chandra Barman

abstract
The study was carried out at the Instructional Livestock Farm Complex, College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry by selecting 18 lactating Large White Yorkshire (LWY) sows along with their litter with the objective to study the effect of early weaning of piglets on their health. All the 18 sows along with their piglets were divided into three groups (T1, T2, and T3); in a manner that each group has represented by almost similar litter size at birth and of similar parity sows. Weaning of piglets was done for T1 and T3 groups at day 24 and day 28 of lactation respectively. Split weaning was followed for the piglets under group T2; wherein heavier half of the litters were weaned at day 24 and the remaining half were weaned at day 28 of lactation. Incidence of diarrhea, mortality rate etc. were recorded on a regular basis. Blood samples of piglets were analyzed for T1 group at day 24 (just before weaning), 28, 35, 42 and 70 and for T3 groups at day 28 (just before weaning), 35, 42 and 70 and important blood parameters like, Glucose, Haemoglobin, Serum Albumin, Serum total protein, AST, ALT and BUN were estimated. The overall mortality rate in the whole experimental period was 14.55%, with pre and post weaning mortality of 6.06 % and 9.03% respectively. The overall incidences of diarrhoea from birth to 10th week of age were not significant among the different weaning groups. The haemato-biochemical parameters were in normal range in both T1 and T3 weaning groups.