Seventy piglets with no access to creep feed were weaned at 28 d of age and fed on one of four diets based on either skimmed-milk powder (SMP), soya-bean-protein concentrate (SPC), soya-bean meal (SBM) or fish meal (FM). At 0, 3, 6 and 10 d after weaning, piglets were killed and the pancreas and digesta from stomach and small intestine were collected, freeze-dried and analysed for dry matter (DM), N, and trypsin (EC 3.4.21.4) and chymotrypsin (EC 3.4.21.1) activities. Small-intestinal tissue samples were taken to examine gut wall morphology. Results indicated that dietary protein source affected postweaning feed intake, pancreatic weight, gastric pH and gastric protein breakdown, and pancreatic and jejunal trypsin and chymotrypsin activities. Post-weaning feed intake appeared to be an important factor in digestive development of newly-weaned piglets. Pancreas: Dietary protein: PigletIn pigs, digestive disorders are frequently encountered in the early post-weaning period. The protein digestive capacity of newborn piglets is adapted to the digestion of milk proteins. Proteins of plant origin are digested to a lesser extent than milk proteins resulting in poor performance when fed to newly-weaned piglets (Wilson & Leibholz, 1981 a, c). It has been hypothesized (Jones, 1986) that this may be due to insufficient development of the pancreatic enzyme system, since many authors report a decline in enzyme activities following weaning (Lindemann et QI. 1986; Owsley et QI. 1986). However, the often impaired feed intake of newly-weaned piglets may also play a role in this respect.The present experiment was designed to study the development of pancreatic enzymes of newly-weaned piglets in relation to dietary protein source and post-weaning feed intake. M A T E R I A L S A N D M E T H O D SSeventy piglets with no access to creep feed during the suckling period were weaned at 28 d of age. Ten piglets were anaesthetized immediately after weaning (day 0), weighed and exsanguinated from the jugular veins and artery. During exsanguination the gastrointestinal tract was divided into four segments: stomach, duodenum (first 2 m from pylorus), ileum (last 2 m of the small intestine) and jejunum (remaining part of the small intestine). Digesta were collected quantitatively from the stomach and small intestine segments. Usually, death of the piglets occurred after the tissue and digesta samples had been collected. In