Evaluating the impact of maternal vitamin D supplementation: I. Sow performance, serum vitamin metabolites, and neonatal muscle characteristics1,2

Abstract

IntroductIonThe most common form of dietary vitamin D supplemented in livestock diets is cholecalciferol (vi-

Evaluating the impact of maternal vitamin D supplementation on sow performance: II. Subsequent growth performance and carcass characteristics of growing pigs1,2

“…The data herein suggest that 2,000 IU of vitamin D/kg of diet were useful in achieving the highest growth rates compared to feeding 800 or 9,600 IU of vitamin D 3 /kg. Also, pigs weaned from sows fed 2,000 IU of vitamin D 3 /kg had numerically heavier weaning BW (although not statistically significant in the sow portion of the study; Flohr et al, 2016) than pigs from sows fed 800 or 9,600 IU of vitamin D 3 /kg. Pluske and Dong (1998) showed that the growth of suckling pig is predominately limited by the amount of milk produced by the sow.…”

“…In addition, the amount of feed intake during lactation can impact total milk production and subsequent litter weaning weight (Eissen et al, 2003). Because of the increase in lactation ADFI observed for sows fed diets with 2,000 IU of vitamin D 3 /kg discussed by Flohr et al (2016), it is plausible to think that lactation feed intake may have been a larger reason for the numeric increase in weaning weights of pigs rather than maternal vitamin D treatment.…”

“…In total 448 pigs (PIC 327 × 1050, Hendersonville, TN) from 52 litters from 2 consecutive weaned pig groups (approximately 50% of pigs weaned from the maternal trial discussed by Flohr et al, 2016) were used as a subsample of the weaned pig population in a 4 × 2 split-plot design to determine the effects of maternal vitamin D treatment and nursery dietary vitamin D regimen on growth performance. Sows were previously administered 1 of 4 maternal dietary vitamin D treatments, receiving either vitamin D 3 (800, 2,000, or 9,600 IU/kg of diet) or 25(OH)D 3 (50 µg [2,000 IU vitamin D equivalent]/kg of diet; Hy-D, DSM Nutritional Products North America, Parsippany, NJ) throughout gestation and lactation as discussed by Flohr et al (2016).…”

“…Sows were previously administered 1 of 4 maternal dietary vitamin D treatments, receiving either vitamin D 3 (800, 2,000, or 9,600 IU/kg of diet) or 25(OH)D 3 (50 µg [2,000 IU vitamin D equivalent]/kg of diet; Hy-D, DSM Nutritional Products North America, Parsippany, NJ) throughout gestation and lactation as discussed by Flohr et al (2016). Prior to weaning, all pigs were weighed to determine the average weaning weight and SD of weaning weight among maternal treatments.…”

“…All diets were formulated to meet or exceed nutrient requirement estimates (NRC, 2012). The pigs used in this study were derived from sows fed different concentrations and sources of vitamin D as described in a companion paper (Flohr et al, 2016).…”