A comparative evaluation of methods for estimating the colostrum quality in sows

A.P Souza,L.S Lopes,A.P Bastos,G.E Bombassaro,F.N Fonseca,F.B Volpato,S.S Maciag

doi:10.1590/1678-4162-12269

Abstract

ABSTRACT Colostrum is the main source of immunoglobulins (Ig) for neonate piglets and plays a crucial role within the health and growth of the piglet. Currently in pig farming, there are still no widespread practical methods for measuring the Ig concentration in colostrum at herd level. We evaluated sows’ colostrum IgG concentration using an optical and a digital Brix refractometer and their performance was correlated to an IgG ELISA test, and flow cytometry. Colostrum concentrations of IgG and IgA averaged 74.05 ± 21.37mg/mL and 20.2 ± 5.32mg/mL respectively. The mean value of the Brix percentages for optical refractometer was 26.32%, and for digital was 28.32%. The Brix refractometer measurements of colostrum samples presented high correlation for IgG content analyzed by ELISA (Optical = 0.74, Digital = 0.87; P <0.001). Considering the immunophenotyping, the values for IgG and IgA lymphoblasts indicated a highly significant relationship to ELISA (IgG=0.77, IgA=0.84; P<0.001). The Brix refractometer can be considered a useful tool to be included in a colostrum monitoring program to improve potentially neonatal health. In addition, we demonstrated that flow cytometry can be an important tool to analyze and characterize the immunological potential of sow colostrum.

Highlights

Pigs are born with low energy reserves (Mellor and Cockburn, 1986) and without immune protection (Edwards, 2002)
We evaluated sows’ colostrum Immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentration using an optical and a digital Brix refractometer and their performance was correlated to an IgG ELISA test, and flow cytometry
This research aimed to evaluate the concordance between the refractometry values obtained by optical and digital Brix and their correlation to the IgG concentration determined with ELISA and flow cytometry

Summary

Introduction

Pigs are born with low energy reserves (Mellor and Cockburn, 1986) and without immune protection (Edwards, 2002). Insufficient colostrum intake has been identified as an important reason for neonatal death in pig production (Edwards, 2002), being the highest mortality rate of piglets in the first 3 days of birth during the pre-weaning period (Tuchscherer et al, 2000). In terms of IgG content, dead piglets have lower serum concentration than their surviving fellow piglets, indicating low colostrum intake (Vallet et al, 2013; Ferrari et al, 2014). It is, more likely that the reduced growth and more mortality in gilt progeny compared to sow progeny could be a consequence of an immunologically poor colostrum and milk production (CarneyHinkle et al, 2013). The IgG concentration in porcine colostrum is reported to range from 48.0 to 95.6mg/mL (Tuchscherer et al, 2000; Quesnel, 2011)

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