Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research EAER Agroscope I good food, healthy environment AFBI Pig Seminar Nutritional approach to improve survival rate and performance of low birth weight pigs in early lactation Giuseppe Bee

2 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee B REEDING FOR INCREASED LITTER SIZE – A SUCCESS STORY Number of piglets born alive per litter in the first (1. Wurf) and follow parity (2ff. Wurf) in Swiss Large White (ES) and Swiss Landrace (SL) sows

3 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee B REEDING FOR INCREASED LITTER SIZE Greater litter size => improve reproduction efficiency  greater profit per piglet  Gestation feed cost ↓  Labour costs ↓  Housing & equipment costs ↓ greater litter size = greater number of weaned piglets

4 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee L ITTER SIZE AND BIRTH WEIGHT  2.5 kg Average litter birth weight vs. litter size

5 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee L ITTER SIZE AND INTRA - LITTER VARIABILITY

6 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee I MPACT OF BIRTH WEIGHT ON EARLY SURVIVAL AND LONG TERM PERFORMANCE (Quiniou et al., 2002)

7 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee B IRTH WEIGHT AND Q UALITY TRAITS  Inconsistent results:  Carcass fat deposition ↑ / ≈  Water holding capacity ↓ / ≈  Meat tenderness ↓ / ≈  When is birth weight low?  What is the cause of low birth weight?  Naturally occurring differences in prenatal growth  Result of intra-uterine crowding (IUGR > 15 piglets born)

8 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee D ETERMINANT FACTORS FOR LITTER SIZE  Ovulation rate  Increases with increasing parity  Pre- and postimplantation embryonic/foetal losses Ovulation rate in relation to the number of viable embryos recovered from the uterus of commercial am-line sows at d 30 of gestation in the second, third, and fourth parity and greater (Foxcroft et al., 2006). (Foxcroft et al., 2006)

9 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee D ETERMINANT FACTORS FOR LITTER SIZE  Placental development Correlation between average placental weight and a) number of viable embryos at d 30 of gestation (r = −0.61; P = ); and b) number of viable fetuses at d 90 of gestation (r = −0.67; P < ). ( Town et al., 2004)

10 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee I MPACT ON MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT d 35 d 55 d 90 primary myofiber secondary myofiber Fixed total of myofiber number birth

11 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee I MPAIRED MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT AND POSTNATAL GROWTH EFFICIENCY r = 0.42 ADG vs. TFN G/F vs. TFN (Dwyer et al., 1993)

12 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee D EALING WITH LARGE LITTERS  Practical solutions  Cross fostering  Foster sow  Artificial rearing with milk replacer  Rescue decks  In farrowing pens Rescue decks ssl#q=milchersatz+%2BSaugferkeln+%2Bsauen

13 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee P OSSIBLE ADVANTAGES OF A MILK REPLACER Nutrient composition (g/kg dry matter) and amino acid to lysine ratio of mature sow milk collected at d 21 of lactation 1 and amino acid to lysine ratio of the whole body of piglets with a body weight (BW) of 1.55 and 8.50 kg Ingredients Sow milk Whole body Dry matter, g/kg194.0 Fat390.5 Protein amino acid:lys ratio Sow milk 1.55 kg BW8.50 kg BW Lys Met Cys Thr Val Ile Leu Phe Tyr His Arg Gly Average of 175 milk samples (unpublished data); Data obtained from Mahan and Shields (1998)

14 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee E FFECT OF ARGININE (Kim et al., 2004)

15 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee L -C ARNITINE A GENERATOR OF METABOLIC ENERGY What is known  Increased litter birth weight  Improved post weaning performance  Stimulation of myofiber formation  Increased protein accretion resulting in leaner carcasses Use of L -carnitine for nusery pigs  Improved energy balance  Myogenic proliferation  Increase in myofiber number

16 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee S TUDIES IN THE FRAMEWORK OF ECO-FCE  Establish appropriate feeding strategies in the early postnatal (lactation) period to improve postnatal growth efficiency  Task 1:to compare the effect of daily L-carnitine or L-arginine administration on viability and muscle development of new born piglets  Task 2: to determine the best inclusion level of the BEST supplement during lactation on viability and muscle development of low birth weight pigs  Task 3: to evaluate the long lasting effect of the dietary intervention during the lactation period on growth performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality

17 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee F EED AND TREATMENTS Dietary treatments:  Control ( Ctrl ):  Carnitine ( CAR ):400 mg/d × piglet -1 (based on Lösel et al )  Arginine ( ARG ):1.08 g/kg BW (based on Yao et al ) Whey powder58.0% Milk powder28.0% Ca-casein powder6.2% Lactose3.6% Glucose0.7% Dicalcium phosphohydrat1.0% DL-Methionine0.1% L-Lysin-HCI0.1% Mineral-vitamin premix2.0% Nutrientsper kg DM Crude protein, g20.1 Crude fat, g7.9 Lysine, g1.76 Arginine, g0.61 DE, MJ15.1

18 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee E ARLY WEANED PIGLETS  Originated from multiparous sows with a litter size ≥ 15  Birth weight ≤ 1.2 kg  Piglets (n = 30) weaned at 7 d of age  Pairs of piglets reared for 21 d in boxes (see images)  Feeding  6-times per d every 3 h from 07:00 am  Feed residual daily determined

19 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee D ETERMINED TRAITS  Growth performance  Morphometric measurements  Muscle characteristics Average daily gain Feed intake Feed efficiency Average daily gain Feed intake Feed efficiency Carcass weight Carcass composition Weight of Organs Brain Muscle (semitendinosus) Carcass weight Carcass composition Weight of Organs Brain Muscle (semitendinosus) Myofiber size and number Metabolic characteristics (LDH, CS, HAD activity) Expression of genes involved in muscle development IGF-I, myogenin, myoD1 Myofiber size and number Metabolic characteristics (LDH, CS, HAD activity) Expression of genes involved in muscle development IGF-I, myogenin, myoD1 Nutrient digestibilty

20 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee B ODY WEIGHT DEVELOPMENT +12%

21 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee A VERAGE DAILY WEIGHT GAIN

22 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee F EED INTAKE

23 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee O XIDATIVE AND GLYCOLYTIC CAPACITY OF THE MUSCLE Treatment CCARARG SEMP-value Dark portion of the ST LDH / HAD LDH / CS < 0.01 Light portion of the ST LDH / HAD LDH / CS < 0.01

24 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee F OLLOW UP EXPERIMENT Same experimental design but with ad libitum feed intake

25 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee C ONCLUSIONS  Increase in litter size  increased number of underprivileged low birth weight piglets  lower chance of survival  Low birth weight  inefficient growth performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality  Artificial rearing with milk replacer  reduce the mortality of low birth weight pigs

26 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee C ONCLUSIONS  ad libitum access to a milk replacer  low birth weight pigs from hyperprolific sows reach acceptable weaning weights  L-arginine or L-carnitine supplementation  enhance muscle maturation  only numerical effects on growth performance

27 AFBI PIG SEMINAR Giuseppe Bee Thank you for your attention Agroscope good food, healthy environment