Sodium buffered formic acid improves sow and piglet performance when fed during lactation and the nursery periods

Abstract Text: A pair of experiments was designed to evaluate feeding sodium buffered formic acid (SBFA) to sows during lactation, and to their piglets in the subsequent nursery period. A total of 112 sows were blocked by parity and assigned to diets without (NC) or with supplemental SBFA (9 g/kg diet). Sows were farrowed in 2 equal groups, and all of the piglets from the first farrowing group (n = 252) were used for the subsequent nursery trial. Piglets were blocked by BW and sow treatment group and assigned to 2 nursery diets without (NC) and with SBFA (9 g/kg diet), such that there were in effect 4 treatments in the nursery period (NC/NC, NC/SBFA, SBFA/NC, SBFA/SBFA; Sow treatment/Piglet treatment). Feeding SBFA during lactation resulted in heavier piglet weaning weights at weaning (6.29 vs 6.00 kg; P < 0.05), and tended to reduce the amount of BW lost by the sow during lactation (-10.6 vs -15.9 kg; P = 0.08). This due to an increase in daily feed intake of SBFA fed sows. While average daily feed intake was not different between groups (6.5 vs 7.0 kg; P = 0.13), repeated measures analysis of feed intake by day of lactation from d 1 to d 18 (first sows weaned at d 19) revealed higher FI on d 6, 10, 11, and 17, (P < 0.05) as well as a tendency toward higher FI on d 9, 12, 13, and 15 (P < 0.10) for SBFA fed sows. Broken line regression of daily FI indicate that SBFA fed sows achieved peak FI on d 11, and the NC fed sows on d 18. In the nursery trial, BW was not different across treatments on d 0, piglets from SBFA fed sows tended to be heavier at d 14 (+0.32 kg; P = 0.10), piglets fed SBFA directly were heavier on d 28 (+0.77 kg; P < 0.05) and tended to be heavier on d 42 (+0.5 kg; P < 0.10). Overall, SBFA improved G:F of nursery piglets whether fed to the sow during lactation (0.65 vs 0.63; P < 0.01) or directly to the piglets during the first 42 d post-weaning (0.65 vs 0.63; P < 0.05). In conclusion, SBFA fed to sows can improve piglet weaning weights, subsequent performance of piglets post weaning, and may improve sow FI during lactation. Feeding SBFA to nursery piglets can improve piglet growth and feed efficiency.

Keywords: formic acid, lactation, nursery, performance, swine