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Supplementation of selenium, vitamin E, chromium and betaine above recommended levels improves lactating performance of sows over summer

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Abstract

Heat stress (HS) exacerbates the body weight loss of lactating sows and reduces litter weight gain. Selenium (Se), vitamin E (VE), chromium (Cr) and betaine have been shown to ameliorate symptoms of HS, and yeast nucleotides and mannan oligosaccharides have been reported to improve lactational performance and immune response in pigs. Therefore, a combination of these nutrients may improve lactational performance of sows in summer. The effects of two nutritionally enhanced diets on lactational performance of sows in summer were investigated in two experiments. In experiment 1, we compared the effects of a nutritionally fortified diet (0.4 ppm Se, 95 IU/kg VE, 0.4 ppm Cr and 0.2% betaine; named as SVCB diet) with the NRC 2012 standard diet (0.15 ppm Se, 44 IU/kg VE) on lactational performance of sows in summer. Results showed that the SVCB diet reduced body weight loss (P = 0.039) and tended to reduce backfat loss (P = 0.075) of sows without affecting feed intake, while litter weight gain was not influenced. In experiment 2, we further enhanced the nutrients in the SVCB diet (0.8 ppm Se, 1% yeast nucleotides, and 0.1% mannan oligosaccharides; named as SNM diet). Results showed that the SNM diet did not improve feed intake of sows, farrowing performance, or litter weight gain compared with the SVCB diet, but increased body weight loss of the third parity sows (P = 0.037). Overall, a combined supplementation of Se, VE, Cr, and betaine above the NRC recommended levels can reduce mobilisation of body reserve of lactating sows in summer.

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Acknowledgements

The work was funded by Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources via the Carbon Farming Futures Program (194374-167) and Australian Pork Limited. Data collection was supported by Samantha Beer and Emily De Ruyter from R&I unit at Rivalea Australia. Fan Liu received International Postgraduate Research Scholarship and Australia Postgraduate Award from the Australian Commonwealth Government and a study award from Australian Pork Limited.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Fan Liu, Jeremy James Cottrell & Frank Rowland Dunshea

  2. Rivalea Australia Pty Ltd., Corowa, NSW, 2646, Australia

    Cherie Louise Collins, David James Henman & Kirrily Sharon Beatrice O’Halloran

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  1. Fan Liu
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  2. Jeremy James Cottrell
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  3. Cherie Louise Collins
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Correspondence to Frank Rowland Dunshea.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The procedures that involved animals in current study were in accordance with Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes (8th edition, 2013) and approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Rivalea Australia Pty Ltd., Corowa, NSW, Australia.

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Liu, F., Cottrell, J.J., Collins, C.L. et al. Supplementation of selenium, vitamin E, chromium and betaine above recommended levels improves lactating performance of sows over summer. Trop Anim Health Prod 49, 1461–1469 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-017-1348-y

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