Improvement of growth performance and sanitary status of weaned piglets fed a bovine colostrum-supplemented diet1

Abstract

The present study investigated the effect of 3 different durations of feeding a diet supplemented with defatted bovine colostrum (Col) on growth performance and sanitary status of the weaned piglet. At 28 d of age, piglets were weaned and fed 1 of the 2 following diets: a control (Ctrl) starter diet or a starter diet supplemented with Col. Two experiments were conducted. In Exp. 1, 310 piglets (12 pens consisting of 10 piglets/pen and 10 pens consisting of 19 piglets/pen) were allocated to 1 of the 2 dietary treatments for 12 d. In Exp. 2, 522 piglets (18 pens consisting of 10 piglets/pen and 18 pens consisting of 19 piglets/pen) were allocated to 1 of the following 3 dietary treatments: fed the Ctrl diet from d 1 to 12 (Ctrl), Col diet from d 1 to 4 and then the Ctrl diet up to d 12 (Col-4d), or the Col diet from d 1 to 6 and then the Ctrl diet up to d 12 (Col-6d). For both experiments, a commercial second-phase diet was fed to piglets from d 12 to 46. Feed intake, growth performance, and cleanliness of floor and hindquarters of animals were investigated during the first 7 wk postweaning. In Exp. 1, from d 0 to 12, ADFI, ADG, and G:F were 16 (P = 0.004), 23 (P < 0.001), and 5% (P = 0.069) greater, respectively, in Col piglets compared with Ctrl piglets. Thereafter, ADFI and ADG were 7 (P < 0.001) and 9% (P < 0.001) greater, respectively, in Col piglets than Ctrl piglets (d 12 to 46). On d 12 after weaning, piglets fed the Col diet had more normal feces (+13%) and less soft or liquid feces (-9 and -4%, respectively) than piglets fed the Ctrl diet (P = 0.06). Compared with Ctrl piglets, feeding the Col diet led to more days with normal feces for the floor cleanliness (+22%; P < 0.001) from d 7 to 11. In Exp. 2, compared with Ctrl piglets, ADFI, ADG, and G:F were 8, 23, and 13% greater (P < 0.05) in Col-6d piglets from d 0 to 9, whereas values for Col-4d piglets were intermediate and did not differ from the values of the other dietary treatments. On d 9 after weaning, piglets fed the Col-4d or the Col-6d diet had more normal feces (+6 and +4%, respectively) and less liquid feces (-4 and -3%, respectively) than piglets fed the Ctrl diet (P = 0.08). No long lasting effects were observed thereafter. In conclusion, there was a reduction of weaning-induced growth check and diarrheal episodes in weaned piglets fed the Col diet. The beneficial effects of the bovine colostrum were observed beyond the period of treatment when the supplementation covered the first 6 d postweaning, which corresponded to the acute phase of postweaning digestive disturbances.

The microbial community of the gut differs between piglets fed sow milk, milk replacer or bovine colostrum

“…This is further supported by the higher diarrhoea incidence observed in MR- compared with BC- and SM-fed piglets. The improved faecal consistency in BC-fed piglets is in accordance with results by Huguet et al ( 15 ) who found an improved sanitary status and faecal consistency in weanling pigs supplemented with BC. The fact that BC-fed piglets in the present study experienced less diarrhoea than MR-fed piglets could be due to the effect of immunoglobulins and growth promoting factors present in colostrum.…”

Alternatives to antibiotics as growth promoters for use in swine production: a review

“…They are too numerous to be able to go into much detail regarding their effectiveness. Some of the more promising include spray-dried porcine plasma [88,89], yeast culture [90-92], bacteriophages [93], lysozyme [94], bovine colostrum [95], lactoferrin [96-98], conjugated fatty acids [99,100], chito-oligosaccarides [101,102] and seaweed extract [103]. …”

Effects of bovine colostrum on performance, survival, and immunoglobulin status of suckling piglets during the first days of life

“…Likewise, alpha-1 globulin consists of APPs (Kushner 1982) and its negative correlation with piglets' BW, together with the lower plasma beta-globulin concentration in piglets receiving BC, might support our assumption that BC supplementation might affect gut permeability leading to an accelerated gut closure, thereby reducing the risk of pathogen invasion. BC supplementation has been reported to improve sanitary status in post-weaning (Huguet et al 2006(Huguet et al , 2011Boudry et al 2008aBoudry et al , 2010 and preterm (Moller et al 2011) piglets. Here, we did not find an effect on the prevalence of diarrhea occurring in both treatment groups which may probably be associated with the relatively low BC dosage and doi: 10.17221/8404-CJAS frequency.…”

“…BC comprises high levels of immunoglobulins (Ig) and growth factors such as IGF-1 (de Lange et al 2010) and contained whey proteins may exert immune-modulatory ability as they were recognized as potent modulators of cellular immune function in livestock species (Boudry et al 2008b). Beneficial aspects of BC on growth performance, intestinal development, immune parameters, and sanitary status of pigs during the early post-weaning period have been already demonstrated (King et al 2007;Huguet et al 2011). Additionally, positive effects of BC on the incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm piglets were described previously (Bjornvad et al 2008, Jensen et al 2013.…”