• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.218-226
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• 2020

The present study investigated the effects of loose farrowing type during gestation and after farrowing on reproductive performance and of lactating sows. A total of 22 primiparous sows (Landrace; average initial body weights [BW], 228.54 ± 12.79 kg) were allotted to one of two treatments on the basis of body weight. Sows were divided into two experimental groups, conventional farrowing crates (CON), and loosed-farrowing pens (LFP). The experiment duration was around 38 days ranging from 10 days before parturition to 28 days after parturition. Gestating sows at the age of 105 d were placed in gestational stalls (group housing). All the sows were fed a common diet according to the National Research Council requirements for lactation. Cross-fostering was performed within 1 day of parturition. From 1 day after weaning, estrus detection was performed twice-daily (0900 and 1730 h) for 10 min by boar exposure. There were significant effects of LFP housing type on the farrowing duration, and farrowing interval. At the farrowing time, none of the litter parameters including total born, stillborn, mummy, born alive piglets and total litter weight and piglet weight were affected. There were no effects of housing type on the mortality of piglets at d 1, 3, 7, 21, and 28. In conclusion, the result of this study showed that there is no performance difference between the crated or LFP sows, which indicate that the LFP housing has the potential to be used as an alternative to the crated house without any detrimental effects in reproduction performance of lactating sows.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.142-148
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• 2016

The present study investigated the effects of back-fat thickness at d 107 of gestation and housing types during gestation on reproductive performance and behavior of sows. A total of 64 crossbred sows ($Landrace{\times}Yorkshire$) in their 3 to 4 parities were allotted to one of four treatments (n = 16) over two consecutive parities. During each parity, sows were assigned to two gestational housing types (stall or group housing) and two level of back-fat thickness (<20 or ${\geq}20$) at d 107 of gestation. Gestating sows were transferred from gestational crates to stalls or pens (group housing) 5 weeks before farrowing. All sows were moved to farrowing crates on d 109 of gestation. At weaning, back-fat thickness changes were lesser (p<0.05) in sows having back-fat thickness <20 mm than that of sows with ${\geq}20mm$ back-fat thickness at 107 d of gestation. Group housed sows had greater (p<0.05) feed intake and shorter (p<0.05) weaning-to-estrus interval than that of sows in stalls. At weaning, back-fat thickness changes were lesser (p<0.05) in group housed sows than that of sows in stalls. The number of piglets at weaning, growth rate and average daily gain were greater (p<0.05) in group housed sows than that of sows in stalls. During gestation, walking duration was more (p<0.05) in group housed sows. Group housed sows had lesser (p<0.05) farrowing duration and greater (p<0.05) eating time than that of sows in stalls. Result obtained in present study indicated that sows with ${\geq}20mm$ back-fat thickness at 107 days had better reproductive performance. Additionally, group housing of sows during last five week of gestation improved the performance and behavior and reproductive efficiency of sows.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.428-434
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• 2019

Many countries have interested animal welfare. Similarly, domestic people have concern for the welfare from companion animals to livestock. Environmental enrichments (EE) are tool to enforce the welfare, however, research with sows is limited. Therefore, this study was investigate to effects of environmental enrichments on performance and behavior properties of gestating sows. A total of 30 pregnant sows (Landrace) were assigned into three treatments that control, T1 (plastic device) and T2 (Rice straw). Period of trial was from Mar. 03. 18. to Mary 19. 18. The EE were allotted to center of experimental pen ($11.6{\times}6.0m$). Body weight (BW), backfat thickness (BF) and cortisol were identified at experimental initial or end date. Behavior was recorded during 24 hours on days 91 of gestation, and then analyzed the patterns. BF was reduced (15.73 vs. 16.56 mm; p>0.05) in T1 than control, but Ending BW, total litter size and alive piglets did not differ. Born dead piglets showed lower tendency (1.00 and 0.63 vs. 1.50 heads; p>0.05) in T1 and T2 than control. Similarly, the enrichments declined farrowing mortality (C, 8.68%; T1, 6.86%; T2, 3.40%; p>0.05). Cortisol was not differed among treatments. In the behavior characteristics, eating showed lower (1.81 vs. 9.68 and 6.99%; p<0.05) in T2 than control and T1. Furthermore, playing or digging were only observed (0.33 and 2.10%; p<0.05) in T1 and T2, respectively, whereas rubbing (0.91%, p<0.05) only showed in the control. These results suggest that the provision of EE would be not negatively affected the performance of the gestating sows and could be led to improvement of the livestock welfare.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.1142-1147
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• 2011

Lysine intake during gestation has a major impact on subsequent reproductive performance. The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of lysine intake from mid-gestation until farrowing on the reproductive performance of multiparous sows. On day 30 of gestation, 200 Landrace${\times}$Large White sows were randomly assigned to one of four groups based on body weight and parity (n = 50). The gestation diets contained 0.46, 0.56, 0.65 or 0.74% lysine. Increasing dietary lysine concentration improved sow body condition at farrowing and increased litter weights (p<0.05). Dietary lysine level also had a significant effect on the dry matter (p<0.05) and protein content (p<0.05) of colostrum. Increased lysine intake increased serum insulin concentration (p<0.05) and there was a trend towards increased serum prolactin content (linear, p = 0.07). However, increased lysine tended to decrease blood urea N (quadratic, p = 0.05). These results suggest that higher lysine levels (0.65-0.75%) than those recommended by the National Research Council improved reproductive performance for multiparous gestating sows and this increase may be partially mediated through blood metabolites or metabolic hormone levels.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.1312-1318
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• 2002

A feeding trial using sows and their neonates was conducted to determine the effects of source and level of organic trace mineral supplementation on reproductive performance of sows and the subsequent performance of their neonates through 2 wk post weaning. A total of 16 gestating sows ($Landrace{\times}$Yorkshire) in parities 2 to 4 were randomly assigned to 4 dietary treatments following a $2{\times}2$ factorial arrangement in a completely randomized design. One of the two factors evaluated the effect of the source (inorganic vs organic), and the second factor evaluated the effect of the level (low vs high) of trace minerals added to the diet. The trace mineral premixes were formulated to provide a low concentration of trace minerals (50 ppm Fe/87.5 ppm Fe, 17.5 ppm Cu/85 ppm Cu, 45 ppm Zn/60 ppm Zn, and 20 ppm Mn/17.5 ppm Mn), and a high concentration of trace minerals (100 ppm Fe/175 ppm Fe, 35 ppm Cu/170 ppm Cu, 90 ppm Zn/120 ppm Zn, 40 ppm Mn/35 ppm Mn), when included at 0.20% in sows'/weaned pigs' diets, respectively. The total number born, total born alive and weaned, and the average neonate weight at birth were affected neither by the dietary source nor by the level of trace minerals (p>0.05), but an interaction effect (p<0.05) between the source and level of trace minerals was observed on the average weight at weaning. The neonates from sows fed the low level of organic trace minerals gained weight at an equal rate compared with those farrowed by sows fed the high level of inorganic trace minerals. Sows fed the organic trace minerals nursed their young with milk higher in Fe and Zn (p<0.05) compared with those fed diets with inorganic trace minerals. Consequently, the weaned pigs receiving the organic form of trace minerals tended to grow at a faster rate, consumed less feed and tended to utilize their feed more efficiently (p<0.10). It was further observed that the organic trace minerals significantly increased (p<0.05) Fe contents in the liver and serum, and Zn in the serum and bone. In conclusion, sows and neonates fed the organic minerals at low level showed similar performance compared with those fed the inorganic minerals at high level as specified in this study.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.367-379
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• 2021

The objectives of this study were to evaluate convolutional neural network models and computer vision techniques for the classification of swine posture with high accuracy and to use the derived result in the investigation of the effect of dietary fiber level on the behavioral characteristics of the pregnant sow under low and high ambient temperatures during the last stage of gestation. A total of 27 crossbred sows (Yorkshire × Landrace; average body weight, 192.2 ± 4.8 kg) were assigned to three treatments in a randomized complete block design during the last stage of gestation (days 90 to 114). The sows in group 1 were fed a 3% fiber diet under neutral ambient temperature; the sows in group 2 were fed a diet with 3% fiber under high ambient temperature (HT); the sows in group 3 were fed a 6% fiber diet under HT. Eight popular deep learning-based feature extraction frameworks (DenseNet121, DenseNet201, InceptionResNetV2, InceptionV3, MobileNet, VGG16, VGG19, and Xception) used for automatic swine posture classification were selected and compared using the swine posture image dataset that was constructed under real swine farm conditions. The neural network models showed excellent performance on previously unseen data (ability to generalize). The DenseNet121 feature extractor achieved the best performance with 99.83% accuracy, and both DenseNet201 and MobileNet showed an accuracy of 99.77% for the classification of the image dataset. The behavior of sows classified by the DenseNet121 feature extractor showed that the HT in our study reduced (p < 0.05) the standing behavior of sows and also has a tendency to increase (p = 0.082) lying behavior. High dietary fiber treatment tended to increase (p = 0.064) lying and decrease (p < 0.05) the standing behavior of sows, but there was no change in sitting under HT conditions.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.254-260
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• 2017

The primary goals of this research were to evaluate the impact of diet supplemented with 25-hydroxyvitamin $D_3$ ($Hy{\cdot}D(R)$) on sow's body condition and reproduction performance. A total of sixteen multiparous sows [(Landrace ${\times}$ Yorkshire), average parity = $3.79{\pm}0.32$] and their litters were randomly allotted to 2 treatments to give 8 replicates per treatment. Diet treatments were randomized to receive a non-active (ND) or active 25-hydroxyvitamin $D_3$ (AD) diet (0.36 mg cholecalciferol/g) during pregnancy. The results of this experiment were observed at the gestation of d 58 - 75, d 76 - 95, d 96 - 110, and d 111 - 115. A corn-soybean meal-based diet was formulated to meet or exceed the nutrient requirements recommended by NRC (2012). Results indicated that the sows' farrowing duration was shortened (4.71, 5.38 h), and the average number of mummified fetuses decreased significantly (p < 0.05) in AD treatment compared with ND treatment (0.1, 0.5) while birth weight was significantly (p < 0.05) improved (1.44, 1.18 kg). There were no significant effects on body weight, backfat thickness, and fecal score during the gestation of sows in different phases (p > 0.05). And the total birth, stillbirth, live birth, and survival rates of the litter did not change (p > 0.05). The results of this study suggest that the farrowing duration of sow pigs will be shortened and the number of mummies will be decreased while their litters' body weight may be improved, if fed active 25-hydroxyvitamin $D_3$ (0.36 mg/g) during pregnancy phase.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.1880-1888
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• 2023

Objective: The present experiment aimed to determine standardized ileal digestible (SID) lysine (Lys) requirements for pregnant sows individually housed under commercial farm conditions. Methods: Two hundred multiparous sows (parity = 5.1±2.0) on day 42 of gestation were randomly allocated to five dietary treatments with a balanced parity. Experimental diets were formulated to contain 0.22%, 0.32%, 0.42%, 0.52%, and 0.62% of SID Lys for the mid-gestation period (days 42 to 76) and 0.36%, 0.46%, 0.56%, 0.66%, and 0.76% of SID Lys for the late gestation period (days 77 to 103). All indispensable amino acids except Lys were provided at 110% of their requirement estimates. Daily feed allowance per sow was determined based on the back-fat thickness and body condition score at the second pregnancy check and on day 90 of gestation. Three different statistical models were used to estimate the SID Lys requirement. Results: Total born piglets alive per litter increased linearly and quadratically (p<0.001) as dietary SID Lys increased. For total born piglets alive per litter, the SID Lys requirement estimates ranged from 9.69 to 12.4 g/d for the mid-gestation period (1.19 to 1.52 g/Mcal metabolizable energy; 0.39% to 0.49%) and 14.6 to 17.4 g/d for the late gestation period (1.62 to 1.93 g/Mcal metabolizable energy; 0.52% to 0.62%). Conclusion: The mean values of the SID Lys requirement for the mid-gestation period and the late gestation period are 11.1 and 16.1 g/d (1.36 and 1.79 g/Mcal metabolizable energy; 0.44% and 0.58%), respectively, for maximal total born piglets alive per litter.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.1485-1491
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• 2005

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of iron from an amino acid complex (Availa-$Fe^{\circledR}$) on the iron status of neonatal and suckling piglets. A total of 24 gestating sows (Landrace${\times}$Large White) were randomly allocated to three dietary treatments. The control diet contained 80 mg $kg^{-1}$ Fe from ferrous sulfate heptahydrate ($FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$), while the two experimental diets were supplemented with an additional 120 mg $kg^{-1}$ Fe from Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ or $FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$, respectively. The lactating sows remained the same iron treatments as gestating sows, while neonatal piglets of 24 litters born from the above sows were allotted to another three treatments. Piglets from the sows of the control treatment were fed basal diet with no supplemental Fe as control treatment, but were injected with 100 mg Fe as Fe dextran at birth. Piglets from the sows of Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ or $FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$ treatments were supplemented with 120 mg $kg^{-1}$ iron from Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ or $FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$, respectively. The total born alive and weaned, and the average piglets weight at birth and at weaning were not significantly affected by the sow' dietary treatments (p>0.05). Iron from Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ did not demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in hemoglobin concentration, hematocrit and plasma iron of sows on day 90 and 105 of pregnancy and the milk iron of sows during lactation (p>0.05). Neonatal piglets in the Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ treatment had a significantly higher hemoglobin concentration (p<0.05) and higher hematocrit and plasma iron (p>0.05) than those in the other two treatments, respectively. The hemoglobin of suckling piglets in the Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ treatment was higher than that of piglets in $FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$ treatment on day 28 (p<0.05). The total iron binding capacity of piglets in Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ treatment was lower than that of piglets in the control and $FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$ treatment on day 14 (p<0.05), but there was not a statistically significant difference among three treatments on day 28 (p>0.05). However, the hemoglobin and hematocrit of suckling piglets injected with Fe were higher than those of piglets in the other two treatments (p<0.05). This study indicated that the addition of 120 mg $kg^{-1}$ iron from amino acid complex into the diets improved iron status of neonatal and nursing piglets more effectively than the addition of 120 mg $kg^{-1}$ iron from $FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$, however, this improvement of the organic Fe was not sufficient to replace the Fe injection for prevention of iron-deficiency anemia.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.303-313
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• 2019

Twenty crossbred (Yorkshire ${\times}$ Landrace) gestating sows were used to determine the effects of Moringa Oleifera leaf (MOL) supplementation in lactating sow diets with or without banana peel powder (BPP) on reproductive performance, fecal moisture content, rectal temperature and hormone profile. The treatments were as follows: 1) CON (control diet), 2) M1 (control diet + 0.5% MOL), 3) M2 (control diet + 1.0% MOL), 4) M3 (control diet + 0.75% MOL and 0.75% BPP), and 5) M4 (control diet + 1.5% MOL and 1.5% BPP). The diets was fed from da 107 of gestation to weaning. MOL and BPP supplementation decreased (p < 0.05) the fecal moisture content compared with that of the CON at day 0 and 7 after farrowing, and 1.0% supplementation of MOL also decreased (p < 0.05) the fecal moisture content at day 14 after farrowing. On farrowing day, MOL supplementation decreased (p < 0.05) the blood cortisol and norepinephrine concentrations compared with the CON. In conclusion, the results of this study show that MOL supplementation decreased the fecal moisture content and plasma concentrations of cortisol and norepinephrine, and MOL and BPP supplementation also decreased the fecal moisture content in lactating sows.