3.3 Feeding Younger Pigs - T3 Flashcards
How does weaning differ in Canada, Europe and the wild?
Canada: 3 wks
Europe: 4 wks
Wild: gradual cessation of nursing btw wk 8-17
Colostrum vs Milk
- which one has more protein?
- immunoglobulins?
- lactose?
- fat?
- Colostrum has more protein, more immunoglobulins, and more fat
- Milk will have more lactose
What nutrient is missing from sow’s milk?
IRON
- so we give an iron injection bc it is not abundant in the sows milk
What is the composition of colostrum?
- Water
- 16% Protein
- Casein
- Whey -> immunoglobulins - 5-8% Fat
- 3% Lactose
- Growth factors
- Oligosaccharides
Why is colostrum so important?
Immunoglobulins (passive immunity)
- If piglets ingest less than 100g at birth mortality can go up to 60%
- Epitheliochorial placenta =does not allow for the transfer of immunoglobulins
- Ingest within first 48hrs before gut closure
How does enzyme activity change as piglets age?
*Enzyme activity changes fast during foist 10 wks
Lactase high then decreases
Amylase, maltase, protease low then increase
Lipase mid then increases
What kind of diets can we feed weaned piglets?
- Wean them when they are starting to increase their ability to digest proteins and CHOs and decreasing ability to digest lactase
- Need highly digestible protein products (animal products) and CHO need to be highly digestible (aka not a lot of fiber)
- Sometimes we add lactase bc they have the capacity to digest it
What do suckling piglets rely entirely on? What do they have little control over?
Relies entirely on sow’s milk
- nutrients
- immunoglobulins
- growth factors
Little control over FI
- consumes all they can
- may not get sufficient nutrients
- may consume additional feed
What happens during day 10-12 of suckling? What do we do?
Requirements for growth start to exceed milk nutrient output
- Start providing piglets with creep feed
What does it mean for genetic potential vs achieved growth?
Piglets reared in an artificial setting (research) grew better than those reared with a sow
- sow has limited ability to provide every piglet with all the nutrients they need
- this is why creep feeding is important to achieve growth potential especially in large litters
How do antibodies end up in the pig?
- Provided by colostrum then decrease and reach a lower level around wk 3
- lag period then have enough immunocompetence to produce antibodies on their own
What is the weaning growth check?
The reduction of feed intake that happens as we wean the pigs
- Feed intake is increasing until wk 3 of lactation bc we separate piglets from sow and they stop eating for a few days bc of the stress
- As time goes by they start eating the diets and recover FI
What are 5 stressors at weaning?
- Social disruption
- removal from sow
- mix with other piglets - Environmental changes
- temp
- feeders/drinkers - Changes in diet
- Digestive enzymes insufficiently developed
- Immunocompetence
- can lead to pathogens that lead to diarrhea
Post weaning development of the stomach, SI, and LI
- Stomach
- increase in mass over 10 d period - SI
- decrease mass 3 days after weaning due to diarrhea
- recovery of mass by day 3 as they start to ingest more solid feed - LI
- increase in mass
- due to amount of CHO and fiber in diet leading to more bacterial fermentation and greater gut capacity
2 morphological changes at weaning
- Villi
- atrophy starts within 24h up to 5 days bc they are not eating and have diarrhea
- shorten and thicken - Enterocyte migration (to compensate for atrophy)
- increase speed
- rapid replacement of damaged cells
- may negatively impact digestion and absorption bc the enterocytes getting to the villi will not be as mature = lower capactiy to produce enzymes = decreased capacity to digest and absorb nutrients at weaning
