Diet preference and meal patterns of weanling pigs offered diets containing either spray-dried porcine plasma or dried skim milk.

: Preference tests and meal pattern analyses were conducted to examine the feed intake response of weanling pigs to spray-dried porcine plasma (SDPP). In Exp. 1, 36 weanling pigs (mean +/- SD; 6.2 +/- .8 kg and 26 d of age) were allowed to choose between a SDPP diet (8.5% SDPP, 20% dried whey, 10% lactose, and .13% DL-methionine) and a dried skim milk (DSM) diet (20% each of DSM and dried whey) throughout 21 d postweaning. Twenty-eight pigs preferred the SDPP diet and seven pigs preferred the DSM diet. Preference for SDPP became apparent by d 2 (60% of total feed consumption) and increased (P .10) on meal size, the number of meals, or the percentage of time spent consuming feed. Weanling pigs prefer diets containing SDPP to those containing DSM, and the increased consumption of diets containing SDPP may be due to greater palatability.