Abstract

If sows are to give many and large litters of prospering piglets they must maintain their body reserves over time and should be fed accordingly. Hence effects of feeding should be measured not only as litter size and liveweights of piglet and sows, but also as composition of the liveweight. In a feeding experiment sows were fed standard (St) or low (L) protein diets during pregnancy, and standard (St) or high (H) diets during lactation in a 2*2 factorial design. The study comprised 13 blocks of 4 litter sisters during parity 1 to 3. In 3 of the blocks, water dilution space was measured using D2O as marker, in early, mid and late pregnancy, and 1 and 3 weeks after farrowing during parity 1 and 3. The water dilution space (kg) showed the same pattern as sow liveweight, it increased from early to late pregnancy and decreased after farrowing, being larger during parity 3 than parity 1. The proportion of water in the body, i.e. water dilution space as percent of liveweight, was not constant over time, it increased during pregnancy to a maximum in late pregnancy, and decreased after farrowing. There was no difference between parities. StH sows - highest dietary protein level - had larger proportion of body water than LSt sows – lowest protein -, with StSt and LH sows intermediate

Published in

Annual meeting of the European Association for Animal Production
2003, Volume: 9, pages: 373
Title: Book of abstracts of the 54th Annual meeting of the European Association for Animal Production
ISBN: 90-76998-20-5

Conference

54th annual meeting of the European Association for Animal Production

SLU Authors

• Neil, Maria

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science
Veterinary Science


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/784