Reproductive traits of sows with different duration of feeding of biologically active additives in their diet

Abstract

The addition to the main diet of sows of additional trace elements (copper, zinc, cobalt, manganese) 10–50 mg/kg of live weight, vitamin B₉ (folic acid) 35 mg/head. and Hexavit 196 mg/ head/day is the most effective in comparison with its use during the last third of pregnancy. The highest effect was obtained of all the compared groups when using a combination of trace elements with Hexavit and all the studied additives together. At the same time, the cobalt content in the blood of sows of these groups has been decreased by 3,3 and 5,0 times, and manganese by 2 times. In the first half of pregnancy, the addition of folic acid against the background of trace elements in the diet of sows had a more positive effect on individual indicators of metabolic metabolism in comparison with other groups. However, in the last third of pregnancy, the best results were observed in the group with Hexavit: the total protein content increased by 3,8 %, urea decreased by 57,6 (P ≤ 0,001), glucose increased by 25,1 %. The feed additive of trace elements and folic acid in the diet of sows in comparison with the control group increased the total number of piglets in the litter by 10,2 %, trace elements and Hexavit by 22,0, with their total use by 18,6 % (P ≥ 0,05), and the number of live piglets by 7,1 %, 9,1 and 15,2 %, respectively. At the same time, the consumption of compound feed, energy and protein per piglet decreased by 6,6 %, 16,1 and 13,2 %, respectively. The use of vitamin and mineral additives with Hexavit in the diet of sows in the last third of pregnancy, as well as with the addition of folic acid, increased the number of newborn piglets by 6,3 %, and live piglets by 2,6 and 1,8 %, respectively. Folic acid alone with trace elements did not have the positive effect on the reproductive traits of sows.