Research Accomplishment Reports 2007

Nutritional Systems For Swine To Increase Reproductive Efficiency

M.D. Lindemann, D.K. Aaron
Department of Animal and Food Sciences

 

Project Description

1. Carnitine is a body compound that assists fatty acid movement into the mitochondria where the fatty acids can be burned for energy. Data was collected and submitted for sows allocated to the carnitine objective (i.e., does carnitine supplementation during gestation and/or lactation improve reproductive performance); all sows have completed the project.

2. All data from a previous objective evaluating vitamin A injections of sows was analyzed and summarized for publication; the manuscript has been accepted and is in press. The data illustrated that litter size of sows of certain parities (parities 1 and 2) can be increased by up to 2 pigs/litter with 2 injections of vitamin A at weaning and subsequent rebreeding. Older sows (parities 3 and greater) do not respond to the supplemental vitamin A injection.

3. Data was collected and summarized for sows on a project which evaluated the long term reproductive effects of crowding young females in their nursery pens immediately after they are weaned. Results demonstrate that the increased social/environmental stress of the crowding reduces subsequent litter size when these females enter the breeding herd. Planned studies will evaluate why this occurs and how it may be mitigated. If mitigation is not possible, then altered management recommendations for young females will be developed.

4. Several studies evaluating amino acid ratios for growing pigs were conducted. The results very clear defined the required amount of tryptophan needed per unit of lysine in the diet. These results will limit the amount of unnecessary supplementation of tryptophan to swine diets which will reduce total dietary cost and will reduce nitrogen excretion by pigs.

5. Evaluation of a flavoring agent to diets of lactating sows and to highly fortified nursery diets failed to improve feed intake of the sows or of the weaned pigs. Additional studies are being conducted which evaluate the flavoring agent in other situations.

6. Previous studies had demonstrated that some antibiotics can improve phosphorus digestibility in the gut of pigs which reduces the need for supplemental phosphorus in the diet. This year we evaluated the antibiotic BMD and found that it does not have this beneficial improvement in digestibility associated with its inclusion in the diet.

Impact

1. Carnitine impact awaits analysis of the data.

2. The vitamin A impact is astounding. The younger sows were the responsive sows in the study. These sows comprise at least 66% of the US sow herd of 6 million sows. If this technology were universally adopted, then 4 million sows would receive this vitamin injection. For the total 8 million litters which result each year (2 litters per sow per year), an additional 16 million pigs would be born. At a value of $20 per newborn pig, this is equivalent to $320 million. The benefit/cost ratio of this technology would exceed 100:1

3. It is important to realize that simple management decisions early in the life of young females (i.e., how many pigs/pen or how crowded they can be) will impact future reproductive performance. Because of the very important societal interest in animal well-being, this information, which has not been generated before because it is such a long-term study, will have positive impact in many ways. The female pig will be better understood and cared for. The swine production industry will be able to demonstrate their concern about the welfare of pigs, and the consumer can be assured that their food is produced in a manner that is acceptable. However, the monetary quantification of benefit/cost ratio awaits additional data that will hopefully be generated in the next few years.

4. The understanding of appropriate amino acid ratios has potential impact on diet cost and nitrogen excretion from pigs eating those diets. Dietary cost savings are dependent on the market prices of dietary ingredients and the choices that swine producers have for ingredients. Based on current economics, there is not a dietary cost savings from this information.

5. Because the feed flavor that was studied did not affect feed intake in the pigs consuming those diets, there is no benefit. If future studies reveal responsive situations in which the flavor can improve feed intake, then management recommendations of when to include a dietary flavor will be developed.

6. The demonstration that the antibiotic BMD does not improve phosphorus digestibility in a manner similar to those that do improve phosphorus digestibility means that swine producers will not reduce their phosphorus supplementation with this antibiotic under the false assumption that they are improving digestibility. This will avoid the unplanned diet inadequacy in phosphorus which could compromise bone health and bone strength.

Publications

de Souza, A.L.P., Lindemann M.D., and Cromwell G.L.. 2007. Supplementation of dietary enzymes has varying effects on apparent protein and amino acid digestibility in reproducing sows. Livestock Sci. 109:122-124.

Kim, B.G., Lindemann M.D., Cromwell G.L., Balfagon A.and Agudelo J.H.. 2007. The correlation between passage rate of digesta and dry matter digestibility in various stages of swine. Livestock Sci. 109:81-84.

Agudelo, J.H., Lindemann M. D., Cromwell G. L., Newman M. C., and Nimmo R. D.. 2007. Virginiamycin improves phosphorus digestibility and utilization by growing-finishing pigs fed a phosphorus-deficient corn-soybean meal diet. J. Anim. Sci. 85:2173-2182.

Lindemann, M.D., Brendemuhl J.H., Chiba L.I., Darroch C.S., Dove C.R., Estienne M.J., and Harper A.F.. 2008. A regional evaluation of injections of high levels of vitamin A on reproductive performance of sows. J. Anim. Sci. in press.

Quant, A.D., Lindemann M.D., Cromwell G.L., Kerr B.J., and Payne R.L.. 2007. Determining the optimum dietary tryptophan to lysine ratio in 25 to 40 kg growing pigs. J. Anim. Sci 85(Suppl. 1):442.

Quant, A.D., Lindemann M.D., Cromwell G.LMonegue., H.J., Monegue J.S., and Kim B.G.. 2007. Evaluating varied periods of water deprivation on body weight and feed intake in 50 to 70 kg pigs. J. Anim. Sci 85(Suppl. 1):577.