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Effect of Supplementary Feeding of Italian Ryegrass on Reproductive Performance, Blood Profiles, and Rectum Temperature in the 2nd Parity Sows
Effect of Supplementary Feeding of Italian Ryegrass on Reproductive Performance, Blood Profiles, and Rectum Temperature in the 2nd Parity Sows
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Grand Ballroom - Posters (Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center)
Abstract Text: Attempts have been made to change the feed composition and increase bulk of pregnancy diets and thereby reducing hunger and improve welfare. Dietary fibre from plants provides metabolisable energy to the pig. A total of 80 pregnant sows (Landrace × Yorkshire; parity = 2) from the 3rd week after pregnancy to 1 week before delivery were used to evaluate the effect of supplementary feeding of Italian ryegrass on reproductive performance, blood profiles, and rectum temperature. Sows were randomly distributed into 1 of 2 dietary treatments, and each treatment had 40 replicate pens with 1 sow per pen. Dietary treatments were: 1) CON, basal diet; 2) F, basal diet, adding enough Italian ryegrass (IRG) in another feeder (sows can access to IRG ad libitum). Piglets were weaned at d 28. At the end of experiment, reproductive performance and rectum temperature were measured and recorded. Cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrin levels were assessed. Supplementary feeding of fiber reduced (P<0.05) body weight loss during delivery to weanling and also back fat thickness loss during delivery to weanling. Sows fed Italian ryegrass had lower (P<0.05) level of cortisol and norepinephrin at d 50 of gestation than those fed CON diet. At d 108 of gestation, the level of epinephrine was significantly (P<0.05) lower than CON. In conclusion, results indicate that supplementary feeding of extra Italian ryegrass can improve reproductive performance on the 2nd parity sows.
Table 1. Effect of feeding supplementation of Italian Ryegrass on performance in sows and piglets |
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Items |
Date/Period |
CON |
F |
SE |
Litter size |
At birth |
11.2 |
11.8 |
1.1 |
|
At weaning |
10.8 |
11.3 |
1.0 |
Piglet average BW, kg |
At birth |
1.43 |
1.47 |
0.04 |
|
At weaning |
7.88b |
8.15a |
0.18 |
Sow BW loss, kg |
From farrowing to weaning |
11.5a |
9.7b |
1.1 |
Sow backfat thickness loss, mm |
From farrowing to weaning |
4.1a |
3.0b |
0.4 |
Piglet ADG, kg |
D 21 to 28 |
258b |
268a |
8 |
|
D 0 to 21 |
230b |
239a |
6 |
Sow cortisol, µg/dL |
D 50 of gestation |
3.3a |
2.4b |
0.4 |
Sow norephineprin, pg/mL |
D 50 of gestation |
93.0a |
82.7b |
6.7 |
Sow norephineprin, pg/mL |
D 108 of gestation |
33.7a |
24.7b |
3.6 |
Keywords: Italian Ryegrass, reproductive performance, sow