Calcium nitrate supplementation has recently been suggested to provide potential benefits to sows and, in particular, their offspring when administered at a level of 1,200 ppm in feed shortly before farrowing through lactation. More specifically, nitrate supplementation has been suggested as one opportunity for improved placental and/or fetal blood flow and has been hypothesized in previous work to be important to the swine industry in light of the global trend toward larger litter sizes. The benefit is likely manifested through exposure to the nitrate moiety, but interestingly, nitrate has historically been considered a compound of concern for swine. High levels of nitrate once metabolized to nitrite can interfere with the oxygen-carrying capacity of hemoglobin, resulting in increased methemoglobin and, subsequently, methemoglobinemia (MetHb) if the animal is deprived of significant amounts of oxygen; however, the level of nitrate exposure necessary to induce MetHb in sows is not clearly defined. This work was undertaken to examine methemoglobin levels in sows and piglets exposed to the potentially beneficial levels of 1,200 and 6,000 ppm nitrate added to their diets over the course of the periparturient period. Other oxygen capacity blood variables were evaluated (e.g., hemoglobin, hematocrit, and various measures of hemoglobin and red blood cell volumes and concentrations), as well as performance endpoints (weight changes and feed intake) and general observations over the 27-day period. No evidence of treatment-related toxicity manifestation was observed at these supplemental levels. Nearly all oxygen-related variables were affected by time (independent of treatment), indicating adaptive general effects of farrowing. These findings support the hypothesis that MetHb is not a concern up to at least 6,000 ppm supplemental nitrate exposure, even in combination with additional nitrate in the sow’s daily diet. This work is important to help swine producers understand that consideration of nitrate benefit should outweigh concern for risk of nitrate-induced toxicity.
An experiment was conducted to determine the impact of dietary SID Ile to Lys ratio on the performance pigs from 11 to 80 kg of BW. A total of 1,092 pigs (initial BW = 11.1, SEM = 0.6 kg; 14 pens/treatment; 13 pigs/pen) were used in an 80d trial with a randomized complete block design. Dietary treatments were in a 2 x 3 factorial arrangement containing 2 levels of DDGS (0 and 25%) and 3 levels of SID Ile/Lys (0.54, 0.58, and 0.62). Energy and nutrient levels of all treatments were formulated at equal levels that met or exceeded NRC (2012) requirements. The SID Ile/Lys ratio was controlled by crystalline Ile. The MIXED procedures of SAS 9.4 were employed for statistical analysis. Orthogonal contrasts were used to test for main effects of DDGS and SID Ile/Lys. In the results, formulating with 25% DDGS decreased FBW, ADG, and ADFI (P < 0.05) of growing pigs. The average FBW of treatments without and with 25% DDGS were 81.7 and 78.6 kg, respectively. The ADG of diets without and with DDGS were 0.88 vs 0.84 kg/d, respectively. The ADFI of treatments without DDGS were 1.85 kg/day, while the counterparts of treatments fed diets containing 25% DDGS were 1.79 kg/d. Feeding diets containing 25% DDGS tended to decrease Gain:Feed (0.477 vs. 0.472; P < 0.10). Increasing the level of SID Ile/Lys (from 0.54 to 0.62) linearly increased Gain:Feed in pigs fed diets containing 25% DDGS (0.467, 0.471, 0.477, respectively; P < 0.05). In summary, this study demonstrated feeding diets containing 25% DDGS decreased the performance of growing pigs by reducing ADG and ADFI. Greater SID Ile/Lys in diets may help reduce the negative impact of DDGS diets in grow-finishing pigs by improving feed efficiency.
The effects of an antioxidant support technology (AOX, Promote® AOX™; Provimi, Brookville, OH) in diets with different levels of vitamin E (VIT-E) were evaluated. A total of 1,848 naturally health-challenged (determined by ~2% higher than the yearly average barn mortality) pigs (~19 d of age; 5.9 ± 0.4 kg), 14 pens/treatment, and 22 pigs/pen were housed in two barns which were blocked separately by pen location and randomly allocated to treatments. Treatments were arranged as a 2 × 3 factorial with three levels of AOX (0, 0.02, 0.13%) and two levels of VIT-E (35 or 100 IU/kg). Pen weights were obtained on d 0, 7, 21, and 40 post-weaning. Growth performance and mortalities and removals were evaluated. Constructed contrasts were: 0 vs additional AOX (aggregate effect of 0.02 and 0.13 AOX), 0.02 vs 0.13 AOX, 35 vs 100 VIT-E, and all possible interactions. Overall (d 0 to 40), interactions were observed (P < 0.05) between additional AOX and VIT-E level for d 40 BW (35 VIT-E: 22.0, 22.3, 22.8 kg; 100 VIT-E: 23.0, 22.8, 22.3 kg), ADG (35 VIT-E: 0.39, 0.40, 0.42 kg/d; 100 VIT-E: 0.42, 0.41, 0.40 kg/d), ADFI (35 VIT-E: 0.52, 0.52, 0.54 kg/d; 100 VIT-E: 0.55, 0.54, 0.52 kg/d, and return over feed cost (ROFC; 35 VIT-E: $27.16, 27.62, 28.29; 100 VIT-E: $28.83, 28.31, 27.50). Additionally, interactions were observed (P < 0.05) between AOX level, when increased from 0.02 to 0.13%, and VIT-E level for ADG, ADFI, ROFC, and probability for mortality and removals (35 VIT-E: 10.4, 13.6, 6.5%; 100 VIT-E: 8.4, 10.0, 9.7%). Level of AOX or VIT-E did not impact cost/kg of gain or feed efficiency (P > 0.10). Including AOX in 35 IU/kg VIT-E diets improved growth performance parameters and reduced probability for mortality and removals, but not in diets containing 100 IU/kg VIT-E.
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