PSII-18 Greater feed amounts during late gestation do not improve piglets birth weight: a dose-response study performed in gilts

Abstract

Abstract In breeding farms, pork producers commonly use “bump feeding” as a feeding strategy. This technique consists of increasing daily feed amount on late gestation to improve piglets birth weight. A dose-response arrangement with 4 treatments (1.8, 2.3, 2.8, and 3.3 kg/d) was used to evaluate the effects on female reproductive performance and piglet birth weight. A total of 977 gilts were fed based on a corn-soybean meal diet from day 90 of gestation until farrowing. Gilts were weighed on days 90 and 112 of gestation and at weaning. Born alive and stillborn piglets were weighed within 12 h of birth. Colostrum yield and lactation feed intake were measured in a randomly selected sub-sample of 245 gilts. As expected, body weight gains were different at day 112 (P < 0.001) with the highest values observed in 3.3 kg/d treatment. As the feed amount increased during late gestation, greater were the body losses between d 112 and weaning (P < 0.001). Statistical tendencies for a quadratic effect of feeding level were observed for piglets born alive (P = 0.079), average birth weight of piglets (P = 0.083), and litter weight (P = 0.059). However, there were no differences among treatments on total born and mummified fetuses (P > 0.05). Gilts fed with lower feed amounts during late gestation had reduced stillborn percentages compared to those gilts fed with greater amounts. Colostrum yield and voluntary feed intake decreased linearly (P < 0.05) as the feed amount performed during late gestation increased. In conclusion, increasing the feed intake from day 90 of gestation until farrowing increased gilts body weight and stillborn rate, but reduced the colostrum yield and the lactation feed intake. In addition, there were no effects of the feeding level in late gestation on piglets birth weight.