A note on the effect of feeding regime on the performance of sows housed in a novel group-housing system

1989 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 523-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Carol Petherick ◽  
Judith K. Blackshaw

The effects on sow reproductive performance of three feeding regimes (ration (R), ad libitum (A) and ration + straw (R + S)), in conjunction with partial barriers placed along the food trough, were investigated. Three groups of four sows were put on the regimes, in a group-housing system, over three consecutive gestations. Each trial lasted 13 days and took place during the first half of the gestation period. Sows on A ate about three times the amount of food that was allocated to them on R and R + S (2 kg per sow per day). Feeding regime did not affect any of the measures of reproductive performance (numbers of piglets liveborn, stillborn, weaned, birth and weaning weights). Sows of parity 7 and over had significantly fewer liveborn and more stillborn piglets compared with parities 2 to 6 (P < 0·05). It is probable that no adverse effects of the feeding regimes were found due to the short time that the sows were on them and because multiparous animals were used. It is suggested that the welfare of ration-fed sows, whose appetite is not satiated, is jeopardized and that this problem may be solved by the provision of fibrous foodstuffs.

Author(s):  
P.H. Simmins ◽  
S.A. Edwards ◽  
H.H. Spechter ◽  
J.E. Riley

Greater demands have been imposed by present-day management practices on the modern dam with gilts being bred at younger ages and lower levels of back fat. This has raised questions over whether current rearing feeding practices and low pregnancy feeding regimes may have adverse influences on lifetime reproductive performance. The objectives of this experiment were to compare the reproductive performance of sows given different feeding regimes during rearing and pregnancy. Data previously reported from the experiment have shown that the weight and back fat depth of the gilt can be manipulated by feeding regime during rearing and pregnancy (Simmins et al. 1989). Sows reared on lower feed levels were more prolific in their first two litters but they also had longer farrowing intervals (Edwards et al. 1989). Further results up to the fourth parity are described here.


1996 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Neil ◽  
B. Ogle

AbstractSixty gilts were allotted to one of the following feeding regimes: CR, a conventional diet offered at a restricted level according to Swedish feeding standards; SA, a simplified gestation diet (mainly oats and barley) offered at a restricted level and a conventional diet offered ad libitum during lactation; CA, a conventional gestation diet offered at a restricted level and the same diet offered ad libitum during lactation. The sows were followed for four parities. Piglet birth weight was unaffected by sow feeding, but differences in piglet live weight were found from 3 weeks of age to the end of the experiment when the piglets were 9 weeks old. CA piglets were heavier than SA piglets at 3 and 9 weeks of age and heavier than both CR and SA piglets at weaning (35 ± 3 days). Litter size was unaffected by treatment as was piglet mortality, whereas the cause of death varied with treatment. Mortality due to trauma was higher among CA piglets than among others, while mortality due to weakness was higher among SA piglets than others and there was also a tendency for higher mortality due to diarrhoea among CR piglets. It was concluded that the CA feeding regime was superior with regards to piglet performance.


Author(s):  
F Brouns ◽  
S A Edwards ◽  
P R English

Dominance allows animals priority of access to resources when these are limited. It is common practice to feed dry sows once or twice daily a relatively small amount of food. This can lead to high competition for food, when there are no provisions for individual feeding of group housed sows. In contrast, competition for food should be low when offeredad libitum.This study was designed to investigate the effect of feeding regime on the measurement of hierarchies in group housed dry sows.Four groups of 12 multiparous sows were housed in deep straw pens (3.1 m2/sow). Two groups were offered a high fibre dietad libitumfrom a three-space hopper (LC) and two groups were floor-fed 3 kg/sow of a standard diet once daily (HC). The diet composition is given in Brouns et al (1992).Groups were allocated to treatment after service. After two months on treatment, the dominance of every sow in each pen was determined in a feed competition test between all possible dyads of sows. A more detailed description of this test is given in Brouns et al (1992). The results of this test indicated how many pen mates each sow dominated (DR). This was used to calculate an index of linearity for the hierarchy (Appleby, 1983) giving a value between 0 and 1, where 1 indicates a completely linear hierarchy.


2000 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Whittaker ◽  
S. A. Edwards ◽  
H. A. M. Spoolder ◽  
S. Corning ◽  
A. B. Lawrence

AbstractAs a part of a study investigating the extent to which ad libitum feeding of a high fibre diet could mitigate behavioural problems associated with food restriction, the performance of sows given food at restricted or ad libitum levels was compared. Ten subgroups of five were allocated to each of the restricted (R) and ad libitum (A) feeding regimes. Five weeks after service, subgroups were introduced into one of two dynamic groups of sows housed in adjacent straw-bedded pens. R sows received a fixed daily ration (parity 1: 2·2 kg; parity 2: 2·4 kg) of a conventional pregnancy diet (13·1 MJ digestible energy per kg) from an electronic sow feeder. Sows on the A regime had unrestricted access to five single-space hoppers dispensing a high fibre diet (containing 600 g unmolassed sugar beet pulp per kg). Subgroups were maintained on these gestation feeding regimes for two consecutive parities. During both parities, A sows were heavier by day 50 of gestation (parity 1: P < 0·05; parity 2: P < 0·01) and at farrowing (parity 1: P < 0·001; parity 2: P < 0·001) than R sows. No difference was found between feeding regime in sow weight at weaning, due to a greater weight loss during lactation of A (parity 1: P < 0·001; parity 2: P < 0·001) than R sows. No difference was found between feeding regime in sow backfat thickness, sow reproductive performance or litter performance in either parity. This suggests that unmolassed sugar beet pulp diets may be used to feed sows on an ad libitum basis during gestation without compromising productivity. However, food intakes may be too high (estimated at 4·1 kg per sow per day) to make ad libitum feeding of pregnant sows an attractive option for producers.


1999 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Le Cozier ◽  
E. Ringmar-Cederberg ◽  
L. Rydhmer ◽  
N. Lundeheim ◽  
J. Y. Dourmad ◽  
...  

AbstractA 2 x 2 factorial experiment was designed in order to study the effects of feeding level during rearing and of mating policy on the reproductive performance and food intake of first- and second-litter sows. Gilts were offered food during rearing eitherad libitum(AL) or at 0·8 of the AL level (R) and served either at first (E1) or third (E3) detected oestrus. A total of 160 out of the 243 animals that started the experiment were culled by the end of the second lactation, with significantly more R than AL animals (71 and 60%, respectively). During the first pregnancy, the R sows gained more live weight (LW) and backfat thickness (BF) than their AL contemporaries (+5 kg and +1.2 mm, respectively) and lost less BF during the first lactation (1.2 mm less). At weaning, no difference remained in LW or BF between AL and R sows (174 kg LW on average). The E3 females gained less LW during both pregnancies compared with those on the E1 treatment, but they remained heavier until the second weaning (208 kg, on average). During the first lactation, R consumed more food during the weeks 2 and 3 (by 0·5 kg/day, on average) than those reared previously on the AL regime, and no difference was observed between E3 and E1 females. No difference in food consumption was noted during parity two. However, when measured over the first two parities, lean animals consumed more food than fat animals. The size and the weight of the litter at birth or at weaning were not influenced by the treatment prior to service. The weaning-to-oestrus interval was longer during parity one than during parity two (5·7 and 5·0 days, respectively;P< 0·01) but it was not affected by feeding or mating treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-107
Author(s):  
K. L. Ayorinde ◽  
U. K. Oke

TWO experiments were conducted using 500 Black Olympian pullets to determine the effects of Juvenile body weight (Trial 1) and feeding regime (Trial 2) on growth and early lay performances. Results in trial 1 indicated significantly (P < 0.05) higher body weight at first egg (1489.9 vs 1383.8g) and 32 weeks of age (17833 vs 1655.2g) in heavybody weight (HBW) than LightBodyweight (LBW) groups but not on other parameters. Feeding the birds ad libitum also resulted in significantly (P < 0.05) higher feed intake during the first 18 weeks of age (9036.4 vs 6803.70. 18 -32 weeks of age (14,065.9 vs 11,420.9g), weight of first egg (47.43 vs. 43.16g), hen-housed average (53.9 vs 38.7%), egg mass (2,88039 vs. 211038g), feed/ dozen eggs (22853 vs. 1768.1g), grain feed /egg (190.4 vs. 14730 and body weight at 32 weeks of age (1808.1 vs 1716.6g). The results indicated earlier age at sexual maturity,lower mortality and higher body weights in H BW and ad lib feed (AF) groups but better production efficiency (feed/dozen eggs, cost/dozen eggs) in LBW and restricted feed (RF) groups.


Author(s):  
P.H. Simmins ◽  
S.A. Edwards ◽  
H.H. Spechter ◽  
J.E. Riley

Greater demands have been Imposed by present-day management practices on the modern dam with gilts being bred at younger ages and lower levels of back fat. This has raised questions over whether current rearing feeding practices and low pregnancy feeding regimes may have adverse Influences on lifetime reproductive performance. The objectives of this experiment were to compare the reproductive performance of sows given different feeding regimes during rearing and pregnancy. Data previously reported from the experiment have shown that the weight and back fat depth of the gilt and sow can be manipulated by feeding regime over the first four parities (Simmins et al. 1989, 1991). Sows reared on the lower feed levels were more prolific 1n their first two Utters, but also had longer, farrowing Intervals (Edwards et al. 1989). These sows remained more prolific by weaning of the fourth Utter (Simmins et al. 1991). Performance over eight litters is described below.


1988 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. D. Cameron ◽  
M. K. Curran ◽  
R. Thompson

ABSTRACTThe interaction of sire with feeding regime (ad libitum and restricted) was assessed in the first stage of a selection experiment. There were 79 sires (59 Large White (Edinburgh) and 20 British Landrace (Wye)) with 1549 progeny (745 at Edinburgh and 804 at Wye) in the study. Progeny within each litter were allocated at random to each feeding regime. Pigs started test at 30 (± 3) kg and finished test at 85 (± 5) kg for ad libitum fed pigs or after 84 days on test for restricted fed pigs. All pigs were individually penned. At the end of test, food intake, weight off test and ultrasonic backfat depths were recorded. Variance components were estimated using restricted maximum likelihood and a weighted analysis took account of the different residual variances between feeding regimes, within each breed.There were differences in some genetic parameters due to feeding regime within breeds. No evidence of a sire with feeding regime interaction for average daily gain or food conversion ratio was detected in Large White pigs (genetic correlations between ad libitum and restricted feeding were 1·21 (s.e. 0·17) and 0·89 (s.e. 0·19) respectively). Similar conclusions could not be made for the sample of British Landrace pigs due to the large standard errors of the genetic correlation estimates. For ultrasonic backfat depths, the negative estimates of sire variances under restricted feeding prevent calculation of the genetic correlations and conclusions to be made about the sire with feeding regime interaction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Spielmann ◽  
Wiebke Naujoks ◽  
Matthias Emde ◽  
Martin Allweyer ◽  
Heike Kielstein ◽  
...  

Overweight and obesity are major public health challenges worldwide. Obesity is associated with a higher risk for the development of several cancer types, but specific mechanisms underlying the link of obesity and cancer are still unclear. Natural killer (NK) cells are circulating lymphoid cells promoting the elimination of virus-infected and tumor cells. Previous investigations demonstrated conflicting results concerning the influence of obesity on functional NK cell parameters in small animal models. The aim of the present study was to clarify potential obesity-associated alterations of murine NK cells in vivo, implementing different feeding regimes. Therefore, C57BL/6 mice were fed a normal-fat diet (NFD) or high-fat diet (HFD) under restrictive and ad libitum feeding regimes. Results showed diet and feeding-regime dependent differences in body weight, visceral fat mass and plasma cytokine concentrations. Flow cytometry analyses demonstrated significant changes in total cell counts as well as frequencies of immune cell populations in peripheral blood comparing mice fed NFD or HFD in an ad libitum or restrictive manner. Mice fed the HFD showed significantly decreased frequencies of total NK cells and the mature CD11b+CD27+ NK cell subset compared to mice fed the NFD. Feeding HFD resulted in significant changes in the expression of the maturation markers KLRG1 and CD127 in NK cells. Furthermore, real-time PCR analyses of NK-cell related functional parameters in adipose tissue revealed significant diet and feeding-regime dependent differences. Most notable, real-time cytotoxicity assays demonstrated an impaired cytolytic activity of splenic NK cells toward murine colon cancer cells in HFD-fed mice compared to NFD-fed mice. In conclusion, our data demonstrate that feeding a high-fat diet influences the frequency, phenotype and function of NK cells in C57BL/6 mice. Interestingly, restricted feeding of HFD compared to ad libitum feeding resulted in a partial prevention of the obesity-associated alterations on immune cells and especially on NK cells, nicely fitting with the current concept of an advantage for interval fasting for improved health.


Author(s):  
P.H. Simmins ◽  
S.A. Edwards ◽  
H.H. Spechter ◽  
J.E. Riley

The modern genetically-improved female pig reaches first mating with low levels of back fat compared to the female bred in previous decades. Increasingly too, gilts have been bred at younger ages and lower weights and the effects of these management changes are unclear. It has been questioned whether the modern gilt is under greater physiological stress especially when subjected to low feeding levels, which could influence reproductive efficiency. The objectives of the trial reported here were to compare the reproductive performance of gilts given different feeding regimes during rearing and pregnancy in order to produce a range in body weight and back fat.The trial was designed as a 2 x 3 factorial experiment. Gilts from a Large White x Landrace crisscross breeding programme, blocked for genotype, were first allocated to one of two treatments from 10 to 25 weeks of age. Gilts were group housed and fed on a age-based scale rising to either 2.25 kg/d (L) or 2.70 kg/d (H). At 25 weeks of age, gilts with defects of teats or gait were discarded.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document