Feed management of early weaned piglets

Weaning at an early age is the practice of greater stress in the pig production cycle and its effects are considered to be multifactorial, summing up behavioural, environmental, health, immunological and nutritional aspects. In relation to its immune defence, the piglet loses the beneficial actions conferred by milk and has altered its passive immunity and its flora, which until then is practically unharmed. From then on it becomes more susceptible to diseases (E. coli, Rotavirus, Salmonella, dysentery, Haemophilus etc.). In addition to this set of undesirable situations, the new nutritional challenge is established, when the young pig will receive a different food to the infant stage. As for nutritional care, the new post-weaning diet should be prepared to take into account the suckling phase of the piglet, when it suckled about 16 to 20 times a day. The post-weaning diet, therefore, must be prepared with ingredients that become compatible substrates to the physiological situations imposed by the management of anticipated weaning. Failure to observe these aspects and the use of incompatible food can compromise the growth of the pig. The reduction in age at weaning coincided with the maintenance of diets based on corn and soybean meal in piglets after weaning. A period that also emphasized the massive use of soy and its derivatives as alternatives to replace sow milk, a highly digestible and pro-infant food. This substitution suggested in several studies occurred, in large part, surrounded by mistakes, since soybeans predispose the piglet to physiological digestive problems, with negative implications for performance

Dietary supplementation with hydrolyzed yeast and its effect on the performance, intestinal microbiota, and immune response of weaned piglets.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of autolyzed yeast on performance, cecal microbiota, and leukogram of weaned piglets. A total of 96 piglets of commercial line weaned at 21-day-old were used. The experimental design was a randomized block design with four treatments (diets containing 0.0%, 0.3%, 0.6%, and 0.9% autolyzed yeast), eight replicates, and three animals per pen in order to evaluate daily weight gain, daily feed intake, and feed conversion in periods of 0 to 15, 0 to 26, and 0 to 36 days. Quadratic effects of autolyzed yeast inclusion were observed on the feed conversion from 0 to 15 days, on daily weight gain from 0 to 15 days, 0 to 26 days and, 0 to 36 days, indicating an autolyzed yeast optimal inclusion level between 0.4% and 0.5%. No effect from autolyzed yeast addition was observed on piglet daily feed intake, cecal microbiota, and leukogram; however, i.m. application of E. coli lipopolysaccharide reduced the values of total leukocytes and their fractions (neutrophils, eosinophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, and rods). Therefore, autolyzed yeast when provided at levels between 0.4% and 0.5% improved weaned piglets’ performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Nutrition of modern genotype sow

The "modern" pig began to consume less food to obtain greater body mass gain, especially protein. Likewise, this selection produced and continues to produce genotypes of greater weight when they reach the physiological age for reproduction, however with less voluntary feed intake throughout their reproductive life. Feeding the gilt should be seen as one of the most relevant phases of the breeding stock's nutritional program since the renewal of the effective breeding stock corresponds on average 30 to 50% of the total of active females. During pregnancy, amino acids play an important role in the development of the mammary gland, when they reach about four times the size. The growth culminates with an increase in the DNA content which involves about 148 g of protein gain per gland or about 2066 g for 14 functional glands which corresponds to 18 g of protein per day. During lactation, the metabolic dynamics involve mobilization of body reserves when there is a nutrient deficit in the diet. The excessive mobilization of body protein, however, affects the condition of the female and her subsequent reproductive performance. At birth, the mammary gland undergoes greater physiological changes when the cells of the epithelial tissue start to function actively in the synthesis and secretion of milk in the lumen that the next is released to the piglet. The size of amino acids must meet the demands of milk production and maintenance of optimal body conditions, aiming at the following reproduction. As a final consideration, it is noteworthy that the nutrition of the modern breeder deserves successive evaluations, especially in the first reproductive cycles, when it is still in the phase of body growth. Another relevant aspect is the direction that should be given to the study of the nutrition of this modern breeder, emphasizing the distinct genotypes that exist in the commercial swine market, without, however, belittling the importance of the other conditions, in which this female will be subjected

Dietary glutamine, glutamic acid and nucleotide supplementation accelerate carbon turnover (δ13C) on stomach of weaned piglets

The use of stable isotope analysis as a tool for characterization of carbon turnover (δ13C) in piglet's tissues by tracing its feeding system has drawn attention. Thus, this study aimed at evaluating the influence of dietary glutamine, glutamic acid and nucleotides supplementation on carbon turnover in fundic-stomach region of weaned piglets at an average age of 21 days. The diets consisted of additive-free diet – control (C); 1% glutamine (G); 1% glutamic acid (GA) and 1% nucleotides (Nu). At weaning day (day 0: baseline), 3 piglets were slaughtered to quantify the δ13C of stomach. The remaining 120 piglets were blocked by weight and sex, randomly assigned to pens with 3 piglets slaughtered per treatment at days 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 13, 20, 27 and 49 after weaning in order to verify the fundic-stomach isotopic composition by treatments. Samples were analyzed in terms of 13C/12C ratio by mass spectrometry and converted to relative isotopic enrichment values (δ13C ‰) used to plot the first order exponential curves over time using OriginPro 8.0 software. The inclusion of glutamine, glutamate and nucleotides in piglet's diets has accelerated the carbon turnover in stomach during the post-weaning period, demonstrating also that glutamate has guaranteed fastest 13C incorporation rate on fundic-stomach region and pH-lowering. Besides that, stable isotopes technique (δ13C) has proved to be an important methodology to determine the time-scales at which piglets shift among diets with different isotopic values, characterizing the trophic effects of additives and the phenotypic flexibility of stomach

Valor nutricional da silagem de grãos úmidos de milho com diferentes graus de moagem para leitões na fase de creche

Utilizaram-se 72 leitões mestiços (Landrace x Large White), com peso inicial médio de 7,1kg, no experimento de desempenho e 20 leitões mestiços, com peso inicial médio de 18,9kg, no experimento de digestibilidade para avaliar a silagem de grãos úmidos de milho com diferentes granulometrias para leitões em fase de creche. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos ao acaso. em ambos os experimentos avaliaram-se o valor nutricional das silagens com diâmetro geométrico médio (DGM) das partículas de 979, 1168 e 2186µm e do milho seco com DGM das partículas de 594µm. Na fase de zero ao oitavo dia, a silagem proporcionou menor consumo diário de ração (CDR) em relação ao milho seco, e foi verificado aumento linear no CDR com o aumento da granulometria da silagem. A silagem com granulometria média e grossa proporcionou melhora na conversão alimentar (CA) em relação ao milho seco, mas não foi observada diferença no ganho diário de peso (GDP). Para o período total, não foram observadas diferenças estatísticas para CDR e GDP, entretanto a silagem proporcionou melhora na CA em relação ao milho seco havendo efeito linear crescente da granulometria da silagem sobre a CA. A granulometria da silagem não influenciou nos coeficientes de digestibilidade aparente (CDA) da matéria seca e da proteína bruta, porém proporcionou maiores CDA do fósforo e valores de energia digestível em relação ao milho seco. O CDA do cálcio e os valores de energia metabolizável foram maiores para a silagem com granulometria fina e média, comparado ao do milho seco. Houve redução linear do CDA do cálcio com o aumento da granulometria da silagem.Seventy-two crossbred pigs (Landrace x Large White) average initial body weight of 7.1kg and 20 crossbred pigs average initial body weight of 18.9kg were used in the performance and digestibility experiments to evaluate high-moisture corn silage with different particle sizes for piglets in nursery phase. A randomized block design was used. In both experiments the nutritional values of high-moisture corn silage with 979, 1168 and 2186µm geometric mean particle sizes (GM) and dry corn with 594µm GM were evaluated. From day 0 to 8, high-moisture corn silage provided daily feed intake (ADFI) lower than dry corn. A linear increase was observed to this variable when increasing the particle size of the silage. The silage with intermediate and coarse particle sizes provided higher feed/weight gain than the dry corn, but no difference in average daily gain (ADG) was observed. Throughout the experimental period, there were no statistical differences in ADFI and ADG. Therefore, the silage improved feed/weight gain in comparison to the dry corn. There was a linear increase of values of this variable as particle size of the silage increased. No effect of particle size of the silage on the apparent digestibility coefficients (ADC) of dry matter and crude protein was observed. However, it provided higher phosphorus ADC and values of digestible energy than the dry corn. Calcium ADC as well as values of metabolizable energy increased for silage with fine and intermediate particle sizes in comparison to the dry corn silage. Calcium ADC linearly decreased as the particle size of the silage increased