PSVI-24 Growth performance and immune responses of weaned pigs from lactating sows fed dietary spray dried plasma

Abstract The experiment was conducted to investigate growth performance and immune responses of weaned pigs from lactating sows fed dietary spray dried plasma (SDP). A total of 12 sows (227.78 ± 7.50 kg BW; parity = 2.0 ± 0.7) were randomly assigned to 2 dietary treatments in a completely randomized design. Dietary treatments were a typical lactation diet based on corn-soybean meal (CON) and CON supplemented with 1% of SDP. Sows were fed the dietary treatments from d 30 before expected farrowing to weaning. Weaned pigs from each sow were transferred to a nursery barn and group-housed by dietary treatments of sows and fed a typical nursery diet for 6 wk. Blood samples were collected from randomly selected 2 weaned pigs from each litter on day of weaning day, d 3, and 7 postweaning. Serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), C-reactive protein (CRP), and cortisol were analyzed by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Body weights and feed allowance were recorded throughout post-weaning period to calculate growth performance of weaned pigs. Data were analyzed using the PROC GLM of SAS. Weaned pigs from lactating sows fed SDP tended (P < 0.10) to have increase ADG (470.47 vs. 414.52 g/d) during overall experimental period than pigs from lactating sows fed CON. Supplementation of SDP tended (P < 0.10) to decrease serum TNF-α on d 3 (344.11 vs. 449.80 pg/ml) and CRP on d 7 (78.41 vs. 112.28 ng/ml) compared with the piglets from lactating sows fed CON. The addition of SDP also reduced (P < 0.05) serum cortisol on d 3 (1.40 vs. 1.88 ng/ml) and TGF-β on d 7 (718.33 vs. 836.48 pg/ml) compared with CON. In conclusion, addition of dietary spray dried plasma in lactation diets may enhance growth performance and modulate immune responses of weaned pigs.