Top-dressing 1% arginine supplementation in the lactation diet of sows does not affect the litter performance and milk composition

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The study aimed to evaluate the effects of arginine supplementation in the lactation diet of sows on their milk composition, litter performance and piglet survival. Sixty-four lactating Landrace x Large White sows, parity 1 to 7, were randomly assigned to two treatments: 1) Control - a corn/soybean meal based diet with 1.10% standardized ileal digestible (SID) lysine and 3,475kcal of metabolizable energy (ME) kg-1, and 2) arginine - the control diet top-dressed daily with arginine at 1% of feed allowance. The daily feed allowance per sow was 5.0 and 7.5kg from day (D)0 to D7 and D8 to D21, respectively. The average litter size was 12.8 piglets after cross-fostering. Litters were weighed on D1, D10, and D21 of lactation and pre-weaning mortality was recorded. Samples of milk (60mL) were collected from all functional teats at D10 and D20 of lactation. There were no effects (P>0.05) of arginine supplementation on piglet weight, litter weight, and average daily gain of piglets at D10 and D21 of lactation. The interaction between weight day and treatment was not significant (P>0.05) for any of these response variables. The percentages of piglets that survived until D10 and D21 were 90.3% and 88.3%, respectively, with no difference (P>0.05) between treatments. There were no effects (P>0.05) of the lactation day (D10 or D20), treatment or the interaction between them on crude protein and amino acid content in milk. Top-dressing arginine at 1% of feed allowance of the lactation diet of sows does not affect litter performance and survival and does not influence the amino acid content or arginine: lysine ratio of milk.