Effect of feeding liquid milk supplement on litter performances and on sow back-fat thickness change during the suckling period

Abstract

Abstract. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of liquid milk supplement on litter performance (weight development of the piglets, weaning weight and mortality) and on sow back-fat thickness change during the suckling period.Data were collected from 150 litters, with the weight of a total of 1709 piglets measured at birth, at 14 days of age and at weaning (28 days), respectively. Sow (n = 150) back-fat depth was measured the day before farrowing, 14 days after farrowing and at weaning. In the control group (n = 363), the piglets were suckled and got pre-starter feed from day 10. In the four experimental groups (MS1; MS2; MS2 and MS4; n = 1346), the piglets received additional milk replacer in various concentrations from the 10th day of life. While there were no significant differences in birth weight between the control and experimental groups, we did find significant differences between the 14-day weights and weaning weights. The milk supplement significantly reduced mortality compared to the control (11.6 vs. 4.9; 5.9, 8.9; 8.3 %). However, there were no statistically significant differences between litter homogeneity data, based on the CV% of piglet weight. Three experimental groups (MS1, MS2 and MS4) were more homogenous compared to the control group at weaning (25.3 vs. 20.9; 20.3; 20.3 CV%). Based on the examination of sow back-fat thickness reduction, there were significant differences between the control (C) and MS3 groups (7.61 vs. 5.57 mm reduction, P < 0.05) during the suckling period. These results demonstrate the advantage of milk replacer on weaning weight. Litter homogeneity, piglet mortality and back-fat thickness of the sows were affected by providing milk replacer to the piglets during the suckling period.

Peroral iron supplementation can be provided to piglets through a milk cup system with results comparable to parenteral iron administration

“…An alternative to parenteral iron, which would decrease labor, problems associated with parenteral administration and allow the piglets to control their own iron uptake, is to provide iron automatically through a milk cup system and through ad libitum access to dry feed. However, milk- and dry-feed intake is associated with large within and between litter variation ( Sørensen, 2017 ) and the intake is relatively low ( Novotni-Dankó et al, 2015 ). Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate if iron can be supplemented to piglets through ad libitum access to sow milk replacer added peroral iron and dry feed and to evaluate if this concept could provide Hb levels comparable to an IM injection of 200 mg gleptoferron.…”

The Effect of Genotype, Sex and Intramuscular Fat Content on the Colour of Pork

“…Meat from animals to be slaughtered exhibits great diversity in the quality indicators and properties of the meat, which result from the normal progress of post-mortem changes. Consumers consider the colour of the meat a very important indicator when purchasing meat (Balogh, 2016;Novotni-Danko, 2015) and its culinary use and physical parameters are directly affected by a number of zootechnical and technological factors. The colour is the primary stimulus for selection of butchered, particularly portioned meat by consumers, who prefer meat with a pale pink colour over dark coloured meat.…”

Pork quality with special emphasis on colour and its changes during storage

“…The requirements of pork consumers are concentrated (Novotni-Danko et al, 2015;Balogh et al, 2016), among other things, on the colour of meat, which is an important criterion for its qualitative assessment. The consumers prefer light pink-red coloured meat (Karamucki, 2008;Pospiech, 2016).…”