Energy and protein metabolism in pregnant sows fed two levels of dietary protein

Abstract

The present study was performed to quantify the energy and nutrient metabolism of pregnant sows fed high (HP) or low (LP) dietary protein [18.3 vs. 13.5% of dry matter (DM)]. A total of nine sows (four on HP and five on LP diet) were subjected to balance and respiration trials four times during their second pregnancy (approximately on days 30, 61, 80 and 104 of gestation). The digestibility of protein (83.0 vs. 79.9) (p < 0.01) and energy (84.9 vs. 83.7%) (p < 0.05) was higher for the HP diet. Daily intake of metabolizable energy (ME) and retained energy (RE) were similar for the two groups, with an average of 28.37 MJ ME and 3.94 MJ RE, respectively. Heat production (HE) measured according to the respiratory quotient (RQ) and carbon-nitrogen (CN) method was similar (464 vs. 454 kJ/kg 0.75/day, respectively). Sows fed HP retained more energy in protein (3.33 vs. 2.00 MJ/day) (p < 0.001) and tended to retain less energy in fat (1.59 vs. 2.50 MJ/day) than LP sows. Retained nitrogen (N) (22.3 vs. 13.4 g/day) (p < 0.001) and utilization of N (retained/digested) (45.2 vs. 38.1%) was higher for HP sows compared with LP sows. In late pregnancy, retained N, retained fat, HE and oxidation of carbohydrates increased, while oxidation of fat was reduced to zero. In conclusion, both diets provided adequate N for retention in maternal tissue and conception products. In spite of the lower utilization of N in LP sows, the N excretion was depressed by 5.6 g/day compared with HP sows, because of the lower N intake.

Neonatal piglet survival: impact of sow nutrition around parturition on fetal glycogen deposition and production and composition of colostrum and transient milk

“…from standing to lying). For the sow, the transition from late gestation to early lactation is associated with substantial hormonal changes Foisnet et al, 2010), altered supply of nutrients , altered intermediary metabolism of nutrients (Flummer C, Røjen BA, Kristensen NB and Theil PK, unpublished) and altered utilization of nutrients (Theil et al, 2002 and. Sows are normally fed a gestation diet low in protein, energy and fat but often high in fiber throughout gestation.…”

“…The inherent alterations/adaptations in the physiology around parturition (the transition period), and the different requirements by sows whether in the state of late gestating or lactating are typically ignored. Thus, official nutritional recommendations for sows do not currently consider whether sows in late gestation produce colostrum (a minor daily investment), or whether sows at peak lactation produce milk with huge amounts of nutrients (Theil et al, 2002(Theil et al, , 2004. In addition, feeding recommendations for sows should take into account live weight, parity number and body condition.…”

“…The precursor for glycogen synthesis is plasma glucose, which is derived from assimilated starch. As gestation diets are normally rich in starch (∼50% of the dry matter), and as sows commonly are fed above maintenance during the last trimester of pregnancy (Theil et al, 2002 and, glycogen deposition is probably not limited by the amount of available precursors. Moreover, glycogen deposition likely has a high priority in late gestation ( Figure 2) because of the vital role of energy for neonatal survival.…”

Effects of available surface on gaseous emissions from group-housed gestating sows kept on deep litter

“…CO 2 -exhalation by pigs is function of energy metabolism and can be derived from the heat production and the respiratory quotient (RQ, the ratio between the CO 2 production and O 2 consumption during respiration (Pedersen et al, 2008). For gestating sows, CO 2 production at animal level is estimated at 0.165 m 3 /h per 1000 W of total heat production, related to a RQ value of about 0.95 (Olesen et al, 2001;Rijnen et al, 2001;Theil et al, 2002). According to the CIGR equations (CIGR, 2002), it corresponds to an exhalation of about 2.6 kg CO 2 /day for the sows of the current essay.…”

Energy and nutrient deposition and excretion in the reproducing sow: Model development and evaluation1

“…In 3 studies (Theil et al, 2002;Clowes et al, 2003b;Renteria-Flores et al, 2008), using the same BW for sows as in the simulation, the N retention was 22 to 52% of the total N intake; thus, the simulated retention was in the lower end of this range. The fecal excretion was greater (13 to 20%) and the urinary excretion (34 to 55%) was reduced compared to studies by Clowes et al (2003b) and Renteria-Flores et al (2008).…”