Effects of organic acid and medium chain fatty acid blends on the performance of sows and their piglets.

Abstract

This study was aimed to evaluate the effects of organic acid (OA) and medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA) blends on production performance of sows and their litters. A total of 36 sows (Landrace×Yorkshire, average parity is 3.3, SE=0.2) were randomly allocated to three treatments with 12 replicates. Dietary treatments were as follows: CON, basal diet; MC1, CON+0.1% OA, and MCFA blends; MC2, CON+0.2% OA, and MCFA blends. During lactation, no differences were observed in body weight (BW) loss, average daily feed intake, backfat thickness, digestibility of dry matter, nitrogen, or energy of sows. There were linear increase (p<0.05) in BW and average daily gain of sucking piglets. On parturition and weaning day, there was a linear increase (p<0.05) in fecal Lactobacillus counts, as well as a linear decrease (p<0.05) in fecal Escherichia coli counts of sows on weaning day. The sucking piglets also had a linear increase (p<0.05) in fecal Lactobacillus counts and a linear decrease (p<0.05) in fecal E.coli counts. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of OA and MCFA blends in sows exerts beneficial effects to sows shifted fecal microbiota by increasing Lactobacillus and decreased E.coli counts. It also improved the performance of piglets.