278 Efficacy of Water Application of a Humic Substance, Butyric Acid, Vitamins C, D and E And/Or Electrolytes on Performance and Mortality in Health-Challenged Nursery Pigs

Abstract

Abstract Health challenges continue to be rampant in nursery pigs which has led to increased industry-wide mortality trends. Therefore, the objective of these three studies was to evaluate a water supplement (HV; HydraVantage, Kent Nutrition Group, Muscatine, IA) which is a proprietary blend of a humic substance, butyric acid and vitamins C, D and E, as well as an electrolyte blend on nursery performance and mortality. Experiment 1 consisted of 196 crossbred weanling pigs (7 pigs/pen with 14 pens/treatment) which were randomly allotted by BW to 2 treatments consisting of control (water for 33 d) or HV at 2 ounces/gallon of stock solution and proportioned through a medicator (1:128) for 11 d followed by water for 22 d. There were no performance differences. However, mortality was reduced (P < 0.01) from 6.12% for the control to 0.00% for HV. In experiment 2, there were 488 weanling pigs (6 to 10 pigs/pen with 14 pens/treatment) which were randomly allotted by BW to 4 treatments in a 34-d trial. Treatment 1 was control (water), Treatments 2 and 4 were HV at 2 ounces/gallon of stock for 11 d and 34 d, respectively. Treatment 3 utilized HV at 2 ounces/gallon of stock during 0 to d 11 with 1 ounce/gallon of stock of HV utilized during d 11 to d 21 followed by water. No performance differences were observed among the 4 treatments. Mortality was 10.89%, 4.82%, 5.54% and 7.26% for Treatments 1 to 4, respectively, with Treatment 1 having a greater mortality (P < 0.05) compared with Treatments 2 to 4. In Experiment 3, a 2 x 2 factorial study was conducted (7 pigs/pen with 14 pens/treatment) in which the treatments were: 1) Water; 2) HV at 2 ounces/gallon of stock for 34 d; 3) Electrolytes at 32 ounces/gallon of stock for 34 d; and 4) HV at 2 ounces/gallon of stock solution and electrolytes at 30 ounces/gallon of stock for 34 d. Overall pen gain tended to be improved (P = 0.09) by 5.23 kg with supplemental HV. Moreover, mortality was reduced (P = 0.06) by 36% (16.86% mortality for Treatments 1 and 3 vs. 10.73% mortality for Treatments 2 and 4). Supplemental electrolytes had no effect on mortality. These data suggest that HV has a positive effect by reducing mortality in pigs undergoing health challenges.