The Effect of Administration of a Nutrient Dense Liquid at Weaning on Growth Performance and Morbidity and Mortality of Pigs during the Nursery Period Under Commercial Conditions.

The effect of administration of a nutrient dense liquid at weaning on growth performance and morbidity and mortality of pigs during the nursery period under commercial conditions.

R.L. Schmitt¹, M. Ellis¹, O.F. Mendoza², C.M. Shull², D. McKilligan³, N. Upah³

¹University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL; ²The Maschhoffs, LLC, Carlyle, IL; ³TechMix Inc., Stewart, MN.

There is increased interest in providing nutritional supplementation via the water supply to minimize dehydration as well as to compensate for reduced feed intake in newly weaned pigs. Blue2® is a nutrient dense liquid that supplies electrolytes through the water in addition to providing the pig with a readily-available source of energy immediately post-weaning. A RCBD was used to compare two treatments; Control (no water enrichment) and Blue 2 (Blue2® delivered in the drinking water for 2 days immediately post-weaning at a dilution ratio of 1:128). A total of 9,215 pigs housed in single-sex groups of 72 (64 replicates), at a floor space of 0.30 m²/pig, were used in the study. Day of start on test was used as the blocking factor. The study was carried out from weaning (approximately 21 d of age and 5.9 ± 0.24 kg) to 7 weeks post weaning. The same standard commercial nursery dietary program consisting of 4 phases was fed to pigs in both treatments. Within each phase, diets were formulated to meet or exceed nutrient requirements as recommended by NRC (2012). Pigs had ad libitum access to feed and water throughout the study. Pen weights and pen feed intakes were collected every 2 weeks, and used to calculate ADG, ADFI and G:F. The pen of pigs was the experimental unit; data were analyzed using the PROC MIXED procedure of SAS (v. 9.2; SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC) with the model accounting for the fixed effects of treatment, and the random effect of block and replicate. There was no effect of administering Blue2® on overall ADG, ADFI, or G:F compared to the Control. Morbidity and mortality were reduced for pigs on the Blue 2 treatment compared to the Control treatment (4.29 vs 3.35%; P = 0.02). The results of this study suggest that morbidity and mortality can be reduced by supplementing pigs with Blue2® in the water supply for 2 days immediately post-weaning.

Keywords: Blue2, mortality, nursery pigs