Nutritional strategies and blood biomarker-based predictions of sow and progeny performance

Abstract

The three chapters of this thesis include: 1) an evaluation of a cheese co-product on sow, litter, and nursery performance fed in lactation and nursery pig diets, 2) an evaluation of sorghum inclusion in lactation diets on sow and litter performance, and 3) observed ranges of blood metabolites in sows and growing pigs. Chapter 1 consisted of 2 experiments, which used 86 sows and 395 weanling pigs, respectively, to evaluate the effect of a cheese co-product on sow, litter, and nursery pig performance. In Exp 1, the cheese co-product was added to lactation diets at 4% in replacement of soybean meal with no impact on sow or litter performance. In Exp 2, the cheese co-product was evaluated in a 2  2 factorial design with main effects of sow dietary treatment and early nursery pig diets, where it was included at 4% in partial replacement of enzyme-treated soybean meal. Both pigs weaned from sows fed the cheese co-product, and those fed diets formulated with the cheese co-product during the early nursery period had improved feed efficiency. Chapter 2 utilized 568 sows to evaluate increasing levels of sorghum compared to corn in sow lactation diets on sow and litter performance. Results in this experiment suggested that tannin-free sorghum can be used as a total replacement for corn in sow lactation diets. Chapter 3 utilized 10 sows and 141 of their progeny to evaluate the observed ranges of blood criteria over the productive lifespan of the pigs. In conclusion, these experiments provided insight into the effect of nutritional strategies in lactation on sow, litter, and progeny performance, and the blood criteria measurements over the lifespan of sows and their progeny.