Feeding behavior in primiparous lactating sows: Impact of a high-fiber diet during pregnancy1

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In pig production, parturition progress is a key event for sow's reproductive performance, evaluated by piglet survival and piglets' performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of feeding a high-fibre (HF) diet during gestation on parturition progress and reproductive performance of sows. Forty-two primiparous sows (Large-White 3 Landrace crossbred) were fed during gestation either a control diet (C diet; 2.40 kg/day, 3.2% crude fibre, in % of dry matter (DM)), or a HF diet (2.80 kg/day, 12.4% crude fibre, in % of DM). All sows received 33 MJ digestible energy per day. Continuous video recordings were done on the parturition day to determine postural changes (standing, sitting, lying) and behavioural activities (nesting behaviour, uterine contractions, restlessness, social behaviour towards piglets) during parturition. Duration of parturition and individual birth intervals were also measured. Piglets' growth was evaluated by weekly weighing from birth until weaning, at 26.5 days of age. Sows were weighed and backfat thickness was measured at mating, on day 105 of gestation, on the 1st day post partum, and at weaning. Durations of parturition and of birth intervals were not affected by the gestation diet and averaged 211 6 12 min and 16.5 6 0.9 min (mean 6 s.e.), respectively. During the parturition progress, the gestation diet did not affect the frequency and the time devoted to postural and behavioural activities. Dietary treatment during gestation did not influence duration of gestation and weaning-to-oestrus interval, as well as litter size, and number of stillborn and weaned piglets. Piglet weight at birth did not differ between gestation dietary treatments but piglets nursed by HF sows showed a 13.5% greater growth rate during the 1st week of life (P , 0.01) and tended to be heavier at weaning (P 5 0.06) compared with C piglets. The HF sows were leaner at the end of gestation (P , 0.05), but variations of sows' weight during gestation and lactation were not affected by the gestation diet. All sows lost the same amount of backfat thickness during lactation. During lactation, the average daily feed intake was not significantly affected by the gestation diet. This study shows that substituting a control diet for a HF diet during gestation has limited effects on farrowing progress and reproductive performance, but improved piglets' growth rate during the 1st week of life and tended to increase their live weight at weaning.

Section: --mentioning

confidence: 65%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary fibre for gestating sows: effects on parturition progress, behaviour, litter and sow performance

Guillemet

Hamard

Quesnel

et al. 2007

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“…growth of growing pigs : Campbell, 1976;King, 1979;Lawlor et al, 2003;Edge et al, 2005;Schö ne et al, 2006;Langendijk et al, 2007;Sola-Oriol et al, 2009;or reproductive sows: Bergeron et al, 2000;Robert et al, 2002;Guillemet et al, 2006 and. Just like weaning pigs, reproductive sows have to cope with changes in their physical and social environment and modifications in their diet throughout their breeding cycle.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The discrepancy between this study and previous ones may be due to protocol differences, such as their use of relatively old sows when other studies used gilts. Providing a high-fibre diet during gestation may also be beneficial for lactating sows because it prepared the sows for an ad libitum food supply after farrowing and increased food consumption, especially in primiparous young sows and during the first week of lactation (Guillemet et al, 2006). However, when subjected to two-way choice tests, gestating sows preferred standard gestation and lactation diets to a high-fibre diet, consistent with its lower palatability (Guillemet et al, 2007 and.…”

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confidence: 99%

Food preferences and aversions in human health and nutrition: how can pigs help the biomedical research?

Clouard

Meunier-Salaün

Val‐Laillet

2012

The establishment of food preferences and aversions determines the modulation of eating behaviour and the optimization of food intake. These phenomena rely on the learning and memory abilities of the organism and depend on different psychobiological mechanisms such as associative conditionings and sociocultural influences. After summarizing the various behavioural and environmental determinants of the establishment of food preferences and aversions, this paper describes several issues encountered in human nutrition when preferences and aversions become detrimental to health: development of eating disorders and obesity, aversions and anorexia in chemotherapy-treated or elderly patients and poor palatability of medical substances and drugs. Most of the relevant biomedical research has been performed in rodent models, although this approach has severe limitations, especially in the nutritional field. Consequently, the final aim of this paper is to discuss the use of the pig model to investigate the behavioural and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the establishment of food preferences and aversions by reviewing the literature supporting analogies at multiple levels (general physiology and anatomy, sensory sensitivity, digestive function, cognitive abilities, brain features) between pigs and humans.Keywords: pig, conditioned learning, eating behaviour, animal model, biomedical applications ImplicationsInvestigation of the behavioural and neurophysiological mechanisms of the establishment of food preferences and aversions can lead to important developments in the context of human nutrition and health. Because the rodent models are not always adequate in this field, there is a need to develop alternative experimental models. Pigs have numerous similarities with humans in terms of the physiology, anatomy, sensory sensitivity, cognitive abilities and brain functions. The aim of this paper is to promote the use of pigs for biomedical research in human nutrition. IntroductionFeeding is a complex behaviour, which can be described as 'the research and consumption of food and drink to maintain vital functions ' (Bellisle, 1999) and to 'fulfil the metabolic needs of the organism ' (Ferreira, 2004). Today, it is also well acknowledged that a high proportion of human food consumption in developed countries appears to be driven by pleasure (for a review, see Lowe and Butryn, 2007) and sociocultural influences. Food consumption is also involved in fundamental metabolic homeostasis regulation, as it controls the supply of energy and nutrients in the organism (Bellisle, 1999). According to Ferreira (2004), feeding behaviour implies that animals learn to consume high-energy foods and to avoid toxic foods. Establishment of food selection implies that, during its first experience with food, the organism memorizes the sensorial characteristics of the food (e.g. taste, odour, texture and visual cues) and the postingestive consequences of its ingestion, and associates these food characteristics with these consequences (Garcia et ...

“…Considering that pre-farrowing body composition is thought to be an important factor for both sow longevity (Tholen et al, 1996b) and piglet mortality (Grandinson et al, 2005), and sow condition before mating can have a significant effect on condition before parturition (Guillemet et al, 2006), it is important that these associations are explored.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body development in sows, feed intake and maternal capacity. Part 1: performance, pre-breeding and lactation feed intake traits of primiparous sows

Lewis

Bunter

2011

This study examined the genetic and phenotypic associations between finisher performance, pre-breeding body condition of the gilt, subsequent lactation feed intake and survival of the primiparous sow to farrow in the second parity. Complete data were available on ,2200 sows, along with additional cohort and historical performance data. Genetic variation was observed for average lactation feed intake (heritability: 0.18 6 0.04), with a significant proportion of observed variation in average intake attributable to variation in lactation length. Weight and body condition (fatness) at finishing were very highly correlated genetically (0.89 6 0.03 and 0.90 6 0.02) and moderately correlated phenotypically (0.58 6 0.01 and 0.58 6 0.01) with weight and body condition before mating. Estimates of genetic (r g ) and phenotypic (r p ) correlations between feed intake recorded at finishing and average lactation feed intake (LADI) were moderate (r g 5 0.26 6 0.16 and 0.42 6 0.22) and low (r p 5 0.07 6 0.02 and 0.08 6 0.03), with r g dependent on the models and data subsets used for lactation intake. Non-unity genetic correlations imply that different genetic control mechanisms regulate feed intake during growth and lactation. Moderate genetic correlations between lactation feed intake with live weight (TWT) or growth rate (TADG) recorded at selection and live weight before mating (0.42 6 0.11, 0.42 6 0.11 and 0.37 6 0.15) were considerably higher than the corresponding phenotypic correlations for LADI with TADG or 29WT (0.09 6 0.02 and 0.08 6 0.02). Correlations between fatness at selection (TFAT) or mating (29FT) and LADI were negative but not significantly different from 0. Overall, these data suggest that there is exploitable genetic variation for feed intake during lactation, and that selection is possible if lactation feed intakes are recorded. However, genetic correlations suggest that early growth seems to be related to lactation feed intake capacity. There was generally no strong evidence that selection for lean growth potential in dam lines will substantially diminish sow lactation intake capacity as a correlated response.