Influence of Meal Periodicity and Time Restricted Feeding Under Limit Feeding Regime on Sow and Subsequent Litter Performance

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of meal periodicity and time restricted feeding during gestation on sow and subsequent litter performance. Two hundred and ninety-three sows [(Landrace × Yorkshire); BW 211.86±1.29 kg; parity 3.80 ± 0.16; backfat (BF) 13.50±0.25 mm)] were blocked by parity, farrowing date, and randomly assigned to 1 of 5 treatments in a RCBD. Treatments include sows fed corn-soybean meal-based diet once at [0730 (Control, T1), 1130 (T2), or 1530 h (T3)], twice [half ration at 0730 and 1530 h (T4)], or thrice [one third portion at 0730, 1130, and 1530 h (T5)], with daily feed quantity kept at 1.25× maintenance energy intake (100 × (BW)^0.75) kcal ME/d. On average, sows received 6934.5, 7140.8, and 7436.6 kcal ME day^-1 from d30-60, d61-90, d91-109 of gestation respectively. The gestation diet contained SID Lys:ME of 1.71 g/Mcal. One common lactation diet was offered to the sows. Body weight and BF were recorded on d 30, 60, 90, and 109 of gestation, 24 hours post-farrow, and at weaning. Count and continuous data ware analyzed using GLIMMIX and MIXED procedure respectively of SAS 9.4 with sow as the experimental unit. Statistical significance was set at P≤0.05 while a trend was considered at 0.05<P≤0.10. Data are presented as least squares means ± SE. Treatments evaluated did not influence BW changes from d30 to d109 of gestation or from d30 to weaning (P>0.05). From d30 to d109 of gestation, sows fed once daily at 1530 h gained more BF compared to both the control (3.82±0.46 mm vs 2.22±0.48 mm, P≤0.01) and T2 (3.82±0.46 mm vs 2.55±0.48 mm, P≤0.03). Similarly, from d30 to weaning, sows fed once daily at 1530 h tended to have increased BF depth compared to the control (0.75±0.39 mm vs -0.09 mm ±0.41, P=0.09) but similar to T2 (P>0.05). Sows fed twice daily gained more BF relative to the control group (P≤0.05) but similar to T5 (P>0.05) from either d30 to d109 of gestation or from d30 to weaning. Feeding of sows thrice daily tended to be associated with increased mummified fetuses compared to the control (0.51±0.11 vs 0.29±0.08, P=0.08). Sows fed twice daily had lower number of stillborn relative to the control sows (2.2±0.24 vs 1.6±0.19, P≤0.03). In conclusion, our data suggest that BW changes is not synonymous to BF changes and feeding of sows twice daily may improve performance compare to single or thrice feeding under limit-fed conditions.