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The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

Abstract

The piglet pre-weaning mortality is a major problem in swine production. The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of dietary gel protein supplementation on pre-weaning mortality and growth in piglets. A total of 48 Landrace x Yorkshire crossbred sows were included in this study. On farrowing day, the sows were randomly allocated into two experimental groupsby parity: Control (n=20)and Treatment (n=28).The piglets in the Control group sows (n=234) were not orallysupplemented and the piglets in the Treatment group sows (n=316) were orallysupplemented with gel protein (Porcistart®, Virbac. Co., Ltd., Loudeac, France). The piglets in the treatment group had ad libitum access to gel protein inacontainer placed inthe creep area for the piglets. The feeding protocols were carried out from farrowing day until Day 7 after farrowing. The creep feed was provided fromday 7 until weaning. On Day 7 after farrowing, 2 mL blood samples were obtained from 160 piglets (Control, n = 54 and Treatment, n = 106) randomly selected from sows included in the experiment for IGF-1 analysis. The piglet body weight was recorded at Days 3, 10 and weaning. The litter weight gains were calculated. The piglet pre-weaning mortality was determined at Days 3, 10 of life and at weaning. The lactation length, litter size at Days 3 and 10 and weaning were 25.5 ± 0.9 days, 11.5 ± 1.8 piglets/litter, 10.0 ±1.5 piglets/litter and 9.6 ± 2.1 piglets/litter, respectively. No effect of gel protein supplementation on piglet weaned weight and piglet pre-weaning mortality was found in the present study (P> 0.05). On average, the serum IGF-1 concentration was 128.1 ± 54.7 ng/ml (range 22.6-243.5 ng/ml) and piglet weaned weight was 6.7 ± 1.3 kilograms (range 4.4-8.9 kilograms). Serum IGF-1 concentration in the treatment group (140.3 ng/ml) was higher than in the control group sows (120.2 ng/ml, P= 0.027). In conclusion, dietary gel protein supplementation in the piglets increased piglet serum IGF-1 buthadno effect on weight and pre-weaning mortality in piglets.

DOI

10.56808/2985-1130.3063

First Page

567

Last Page

572

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