Supplemental milk and liquid feed for newly weaned pigs
Shiv Vasa & Peadar Lawlor tell us the abrupt change from a highly digestible liquid diet (sow’s milk) at weaning to a pelleted solid diet with a different texture, smell and composition leads to severe nutritional stress in newly weaned piglets.
Due to this, voluntary feed intake of piglets is low in the early post-weaning period resulting in shortening of intestinal villi which reduces nutrient absorptive capacity and further reduces growth.
As part of the MonoGutHealth project, we tested strategies to increase early post-weaning feed intake. Weaned piglets were provided with supplemental milk or liquid starter diet for either 4 or 11 days post-weaning. This was in addition to ad-libitum access to a dry pelleted starter diet. The five dietary treatments tested were: 1) Dry pelleted starter diet (DPS); 2) DPS + liquid starter diet for 4 days; 3) DPS + liquid milk replacer for 4 days; 4) DPS + liquid starter diet for 11 days and 5) DPS + liquid milk replacer for 11 days. The liquid milk and liquid starter diet was provided via a Schauer Babyfeed automated delivery system. The supplemental milk used was Opticare from Swinco. Milk replacer powder and starter diet were mixed in hot water to prepare the liquid milk replacer and the liquid starter diet, respectively.
Figure 1: Average daily gain of piglets in early post weaning period
Between day 0 to 11 post-weaning, pigs fed milk replacer for 11 days had 54-57% higher growth rate (Figure 1) and 38-48% higher feed intake (Figure 2) compared to piglets fed liquid starter diet for 4 days and piglets fed DPS alone. All other treatments had growth rates, during this period, that were not significantly different from piglets fed DPS alone or those fed milk replacer for 11 days post-weaning. The benefit in growth rate from feeding piglets milk replacer for 11 days post-weaning was still evident up to day 28 post-weaning. After this time the growth rate advantage associated with feeding milk replacer for 11 days post-weaning was lost. At day 7 post-weaning we collected intestinal tissues from the piglets to study their intestinal structure and function. We observed that piglets fed milk replacer for 11 days post-weaning had 37% higher jejunal villus height than piglets fed DPS and piglets fed liquid starter diet for 11 days had 28% higher ileal villus height than piglets fed liquid starter diet for 4 days. Additionally, piglets fed milk replacer for 11 days had up to 150% higher ileal sucrase activity compared to those fed milk replacer for 4 days and piglets fed liquid starter diet for either 4 or 11 days and 180% higher ileal maltase activity compared to piglets fed liquid starter diet for 4 days (Figure 3). No effect of the nutritional strategies on the occurrence of post-weaning diarrhoea, medicinal usage, slaughter weight and carcass quality parameters were observed.
Figure 2: Feed intake of piglets in early post weaning period
In conclusion, supplementing milk replacer to newly weaned pigs along with a dry pelleted starter diet for 11 days post-weaning increased feed intake and growth during the early post-weaning period. Moreover, supplementing weaned pigs with milk replacer and liquid starter diet for more than 4 days post-weaning improved intestinal structure and increased intestinal enzyme activity in pigs at day 7 post-weaning. The latter indicates that these pigs were more equipped to deal with the nutritional challenges associated with weaning.
Figure 3: Digestive enzyme activities of intestinal mucosa of piglets on day 7 post-weaning
Implications
Post-weaning liquid milk supplementation increased feed intake and growth in the immediate post-weaning period and will likely benefit light and vulnerable pigs at weaning. Since, milk supplementation greatly increased early post-weaning feed intake, the practice could be particularly useful for delivering bio-active compounds to the pig gut during the critical post-weaning window. Providing starter diet in liquid form in addition to dry pelleted starter diet, improved the intestinal structure of newly weaned piglets. The results suggest that the period of liquid milk supplementation should be between 4 and 10 days post-weaning to observe a growth benefit early post-weaning. The occurrence of post-weaning diarrhoea was low during the trial. Therefore it was no surprise that no treatment effect on medication usage and diarrhoea incidence was observed.
Acknowledgements
The study is supported by the project MonoGutHealth, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 955374.
This article was pulished in the Teagasc PIgs Newsletter February 2023, read the full newsletter here