Effects of supplementing organic microminerals and methionine during the rearing phase of replacement gilts on lameness, growth, and body composition1

Abstract

Lameness is a primary reason for culling and mortality within a sow herd. This study evaluated the impact of feeding organic trace minerals and methionine (Met) to growing gilts (134 d) on lameness, performance, body composition and claw health (to first parity), productivity (to second parity), and reproductive performance through 2 parities. Young gilts (28.8 ± 8.8 kg of body weight [BW], n = 360) were BW blocked (10 gilts/pen) and randomly allotted to 1 of 4 dietary treatments: control (CON, basal diet); CON plus organic minerals (MIN, at 10, 20, and 50 mg/kg of Cu, Mn, and Zn, respectively; Aplomotec Plus, Tecnología & Vitaminas, S.L, Alforja, Spain); additional Met (MET, at 102% Met: Lys); and MET plus MIN (MM). Feed was provided ad libitum. Lameness, BW, and body composition were measured 7 times during rearing, at gilt service, day 109 of gestation, and first weaning. Gilts fed the MM diet had lower average daily feed intake (5.1%) and final BW (2.1%) than CON gilts (P < 0.05), whereas MIN and MET were intermediate and not different from each other. Similarly, final backfat (BF) was greatest in CON (P < 0.05), whereas CON and MIN increased final loin depth compared with MM (P < 0.05) with MET not being different. During rearing, 7.7% of all gilts presented lameness, which appeared between 106.8 and 129.7 kg BW confidence interval. Gilts that had been or were lame had reduced BW and average daily gain compared with never lame gilts (P < 0.05). Lameness during rearing was highest (P < 0.01) in gilts fed CON diet (14.8%), with no differences amongst MIN (2.0%), MET (5.3%), or MM (6.5%). In the sow herd, 21% of sows showed lameness and 24% of those were associated with claw lesions. At weaning, gilts fed CON diet had highest (P < 0.01) prevalence of lameness (20.8%) with no differences amongst MIN (6.5%), MET (11.1%), or MM (7.6%). Over the first 2 parities, 27.3% of gilts were culled. On farm, lameness was associated with 0.7 more stillborn piglets (P < 0.10), 1 mm more BF loss in first lactation (P < 0.05), and increased weaning-to-estrus by 3 d (P < 0.05). In conclusion, lameness during rearing was decreased by supplementing organic trace minerals, methionine, and their combination, which also reduced lameness during lactation.

The effect of group composition and mineral supplementation during rearing on the behavior and welfare of replacement gilts

“…Surprisingly, there was no effect of any treatment on locomotion score. This may be due to hoof and bone disorders not having yet developed to a stage where impaired locomotion is evident, although several previous studies did find improvements in locomotory ability in gilts which were supplemented with similar levels of Cu, Zn, and Mn as employed in this trial ( Quinn, 2014 ; Quinn et al, 2015 ; Fabà et al, 2018 ). Quinn et al (2015) included the mineral supplement in a diet formulated for fat rather than lean meat deposition (i.e., a developer diet), which had a higher energy to lysine ratio than a standard finisher diet.…”

“…We previously showed that gilts coming from the same mixed-sex groups had more mechanical damage to the cartilage on the elbow joint than gilts reared in the single-sex groups ( Hartnett et al, 2019 ), so it is possible that this type of injury could have contributed to a lower growth rate. However, Fabà et al (2018) found that the incidence of lameness increased as body weight increased, and lame gilts had lower growth rates.…”

“…Similar to the current study, ( Quinn, 2014 ) found that gilts reared on a “developer” diet (formulated for slow growth and supplemented with Cu, Zn, and Mn) had the lowest risk of abnormal locomotion compared with gilts fed a finisher or gestating sow diet during rearing. Fabà et al (2018) carried out similar work, rearing gilts on one of four diets: a standard finisher diet, a finisher diet supplemented with either minerals (Cu, Zn, and Mn), methionine, or both minerals and methionine. These authors found that there was a higher percentage of lame gilts when fed the control diet compared to all other treatments.…”

“…However, Quinn used terminal line pigs, which may have been more susceptible to lameness than maternal lines. Fabà et al (2018) used a different scoring system for locomotory ability and reported only lameness prevalence and, thus, no data were provided regarding the distribution of locomotory ability across the scoring scale.…”

Effects of supplementing organic microminerals and methionine with or without limiting growth during the rearing phase of replacement gilts on lameness, growth, and body composition1

“…In a previous study, lameness was reduced when supplementing organic trace minerals (TM) copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), and zinc (Zn) in combination or not with high methionine (Met) such as a 1.02 Met:lysine (Lys) ratio ( Fabà et al, 2018 ). In a subsample study, TM also increased tibia breakage force, bone density, and metacarpal weight and ash content ( Fabà et al, 2019 ).…”