Effect of supplementing milk during first 4 days postweaning on growth performance, energy digestibility, gut morphology, and severity of diarrhea for nursery pigs in a commercial farm

Abstract Text: The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of supplemental milk (6.5, 8.7, 10.9, and 10.9 g DM milk/pig/d; 10% of estimated feed intake) during the first 4 d postweaning on growth performance, energy digestibility, and severity of diarrhea of nursery pigs. A total of 644 crossbred pigs, weaned at 3 wk of age (6.4 ± 1.2 kg of BW), were randomly assigned to 2 dietary treatments (12 pens/treatment, 27 pigs/pen) in a randomized complete block design with sex and initial BW as blocks. Pigs were fed pellet feed either with or without milk supplementation from d 1 to 4 postweaning (4 times daily) in a T shaped feeder that was placed in the pens for 2 h at each feeding. All pigs had free excess to another nursery feeder with the same pellet feed during the entire nursery period in 3 phases (phase I: 10 d; phase II: 14 d; and phase III: 25 d). Fecal score was evaluated daily according to the observation of fresh feces in pens from d 1 to 4 postweaning following a scale of 1 to 3 (3 = liquid diarrheal feces). Titanium dioxide (0.3%) was added in the phase I pellet feed as an indigestible marker to measure apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of DM and GE. Jejunal tissue and ileal digesta from 1 pig/pen were collected at d 4 and 10 postweaning. Data were analyzed using Mixed procedure of SAS. Statistical differences among treatment means were considered significant with P < 0.05. The results showed that milk supplementation did not affect the ADG and ADFI during the entire nursery period. However, supplementing milk tended to increase (P = 0.073) G:F ratio (0.708 to 0.748) during phase I and II. The AID of DM and GE at d 10 of postweaning did not differ between treatments. Supplemental lipid milk tended to enhance (P = 0.062) villus height:crypt depth (2.04 to 2.15) in the jejunum at d 10 postweaning. Supplemental milk tended to reduce (P = 0.065) the fecal score (2.04 to 1.84) and decreased (P < 0.05) mortality (4.35 to 1.55%) during the entire nursery period. Collectively, supplementing milk 4 times daily for the first 4 d postweaning helped nursery pigs by enhancing feed efficiency and gut morphology with decreased severity of diarrhea and mortality during phase I and II.

Keywords: Growth performance, Gut health, Milk, Nursery pigs