292 Effect of Providing Supplemental Milk and Liquid Starter Diet for 4 and 11 Days, Respectively, Post-Weaning on Feed Intake, Growth and Intestinal Structure and Function of Newly Weaned Piglets

Abstract

Abstract Reduced piglet feed intake, immediately post-weaning (PW), leads to disruption of the intestinal barrier, often resulting in health issues such as diarrhea. The objective was to evaluate the effect of providing supplemental milk and liquid starter diet for 4 and 11 days PW, respectively, on feed intake, growth, and intestinal structure and function of newly weaned piglets. Weaned piglets [n = 587 (Large White x Landrace) x Duroc; 28 days old] ) were divided into 59 pen groups each containing 9 to 10 same sex (entire male or female) piglets. The pen groups were blocked by sex and weaning weight and provided with ad libitum access to one of 5 dietary treatments: 1) Dry pelleted starter diet (control; CON); 2) CON + liquid milk replacer for 4 days (M4); 3) CON + liquid milk replacer for 11 days (M11); 4) CON + liquid starter diet for 4 days (S4) and 5) CON + liquid starter diet for 11 days (S11). Pen groups were weighed at weaning, days 11, 20 and 28 PW and feed disappearance (dry matter basis) was recorded on each weighing day. On day 7 PW, 10 piglets per treatment were euthanized to collect jejunal and ileal tissue samples. Villus height (VH), crypt depth and brush-border membrane (BBM) enzyme activity were determined from the tissue samples. Data were analysed with PROC MIXED (SAS-version 9.4, SAS Institute Inc.) with treatment as a fixed effect, block as a random effect, weaning weight as a co-variate and days PW as the repeated measure. Pen group was the experimental unit. From day 0 to 11 PW, M11 increased average daily gain (ADG) by 57% and average daily feed intake (ADFI) by 48% compared with CON (P < 0.05). M11 increased ADG by 54% and ADFI by 38% compared with S4 (P < 0.05) from day 0 to 11 PW. However, ADG and ADFI did not differ among treatment groups from day 11 to 28 PW. The treatments did not affect feed conversion ratio (P > 0.05) from day 0 to 28 PW. At day 7 PW, M11 piglets had 37% higher jejunal VH than CON piglets (P < 0.05) and S11 piglets had 28% higher ileal VH than S4 piglets (P < 0.05). The treatments did not affect crypt depth (P > 0.05). M11 piglets had up to 1.5-fold greater ileal sucrase activity compared with M4, S4 and S11 piglets (P < 0.05) and 1.8-fold greater ileal maltase activity compared with S4 piglets (P < 0.05). In conclusion, M11 and S11 reduced the negative effects of weaning, as they were associated with increased feed intake and growth in early PW. Offering feed in liquid form for longer than 4 days PW improved intestinal structure and increased BBM enzyme activity in newly weaned piglets.