Selected Nutrition and Management Strategies in Suckling Pigs to Improve Post-Weaning Outcomes

Abstract

Weaning is a critical period in a pig’s life. Piglets are confronted with abrupt changes to their physical and social environment, as well as management and nutritional changes. Weaning has always been associated with a growth check and is frequently accompanied by post-weaning diarrhoea in piglets. However, rapid increases in litter size in the last decade have increased within-litter piglet weight variation, with piglets now generally lighter at weaning, making the challenges associated with weaning even greater. Many interventions can be employed during the suckling period to ease the weaning transition for piglets. Pre-weaning strategies such as supervised farrowing (assistance with suckling and oxytocin provision), the provision of pain relief to sows around farrowing, split-suckling, early oral supplementation with glucose, bovine colostrum, faecal microbiota transplantation, feed additives and solid and liquid creep feeding (milk and liquid feed) have all been investigated. The objective of these strategies is to stimulate earlier maturation of the digestive tract, improve immunity, reduce latency to the first feed post-weaning and increase early post-weaning feed intake and growth. This review focuses in particular on: (1) pain relief provision to sows around farrowing, (2)split-suckling of piglets, (3) pre-weaning provision of supplementary milk and/or liquid feed, (4) other strategies to stimulate earlier enzyme production (e.g., enzyme supplementation), (5) other nutritional strategies to promote improved gut structure and function (e.g., L-glutamine supplementation), and (6) other strategies to modulate gut microbiota (e.g., probiotics and prebiotics). Correctly implementing these strategies can, not only increase post-weaning growth and reduce mortality, but also maximise lifetime growth in pigs.

The nurse sow system ‒ A natural process of handling large litters: A review

“…When a batch of sows has more viable liveborn piglets than functional teats, interventions are required to successfully nurture the greater number of piglets (Rutherford et al 2013) On commercial pig farms, a variety of management interventions are used to ensure that the greatest number of piglets are weaned. For instance, recommendations for split suckling (Peltoniemi et al 2021;Arnaud et al 2023), fostering measures https://doi.org/10.17221/158/2023-CJAS (Deen and Bilkei 2004;Ward et al 2020), using nurse sows (Alvasen et al 2017;Alexopoulos et al 2018), double nursing (Houben et al 2017) and artificial rearing (De Vos et al 2014;Novotni-Danko et al 2015;Houben et al 2017) have been reported. On many commercial pig farms, Large White and Landrace crossbreds are the most dominant hyperprolific breeds.…”

“…This reorganization, which is witnessed with aggression during the initial hours, often results in litter disputes eventually leading to fighting (Arnaud et al 2023). Fighting prevents piglets from getting enough time and an opportunity to nurse because attention is diverted from suckling to the establishment of a litter hierarchy.…”

Realization of the genetic growth potential of danish–bred hybrid piglets under different feeding conditions and the influence of feeding method on sow utilization intensity

“…Подібно до досліджень (Zijlstra et al, 1996;Brooks et al, 2001;Zoric et al, 2015;Pedersen & Nielsen, 2016;Arnaud et al, 2023;Danvet research, 2023), нами вста-новлено, що використання рідкої підгодівлі поросят підвищувало показники збереженості поросят, збільшувало кількість відлучених поросят, та масу їх гнізда при відлученні порівняно зі стадами, де не використовувалась рідка система підгодівлі поросят. Також наші дані щодо покращення збереженості та показників росту внаслідок застосування рідких сумішей для підгодівлі підсисного молодняку підтвердилися дослідженнями (Park et al, 2014;Regneark, 2017), які вказували на покращення збереженості поросят до відлучення і маси їх гнізда на цей час.…”

“…Жива маса поросят і маса гнізда мали тісну кореляцію із загальним споживанням корму. В свою чергу(Arnaud et al, 2023) повідомляють що рідка підгодівля стимулює більш раннє дозрівання травного тракту, покращення імунітету, більш ранньому початку споживання корму після відлучення та підвищення енергії росту.…”

Expressions of Insulin-like Growth Factor System among Different Breeds Impact Piglets’ Growth during Weaning

“…Additionally, weaning stress in piglets is mitigated by considering the management measures and nutritional interventions during pre-and post-weaning periods, such as improving the feeding conditions and the health of gestating sows in order to meet adequate colostrum and milk during lactation. Dietary interventions through feed additives with the functions to improve intestinal function and microbiota and enhance immunity (e.g., amino acids, probiotics, prebiotics), the morphology and palatability of diets, and the appropriate environment of the barn have also been used to prevent the weaning stress of piglets at the early age [23,24]. Thus, the present Animals 2023, 13, 3011 3 of 15 study will offer an informative perspective on the growth and development of different pig breeds and avenues to alleviate the adverse effects of weaning stress on the growth and development of piglets.…”