Colostrum excellence: hyperprolific sows delivering top notch colostrum – superior start for piglets!

This trial was done on a commercial fam in Czech republic with 1,200 hyperprolific Danish lines. This case has been  presented at IPVS/ESPHM international meeting in June of 2024

This study was divided in two phases.

Phase one: Evaluated colostrum quality:

• 25 sows control group and 22 sows BG group (supplemented during last 3 weeks of gestation with the equivalent of 1g/sow/day of beta-(1,3)-glucan)
• Colostrum samples where collected and IgA and IgG where measured. Results can be seen in figure 1

Figure 1 Immunoglobulin content

• Both immunoglobulins significantly increased in the BG group, crucial to increasing survivability of piglets. In addition, IgA remains high for the whole lactation period which will help reducing pre weaning diarrhoea.
• Although not significant we have seen a reduction in the number of smalls pigs –, and also an increase in weaning weights and reduction on post weaning deaths as seen in figure 2

Figure 2 Piglet performance (Mortality, number of small piglets and average weaning weight)

Phase 2: Weaning performance

• On the second phase the authors followed through 3 batches with BG (87 sows on each batch) vs a control group (87 sows).
• The authors supplemented all sows on the BG group with 200g/t of BG during at least 3 weeks of gestation (group BG1 3 weeks, BG2 4 weeks and BG3 5 weeks) as BG was included as standard in the gestation diet.  
•  A significant increase on weaning weight and litter weight across all BG groups was noticed as seen in figure 3

Figure 3 weaning performance

• The authors believe that the main reason why the performance increases is as a consequence of more IgA in mature milk throughout lactation, hence enhancing intestinal health and producing stronger piglets.

To sum up, utilising beta glucans could be transformative for pig production, used as an immunoadjuvant boosting immunoglobulin content in colostrum and mature milk.