Bacillus subtilis, essential oil, chromium and glucose as sow pack alters the performance, immune and stress on pregnant sows and piglets
A total of 26 (Landrace × Yorkshire) sows were randomly allotted to two experimental dietary treatments: 1) basal diet (CON); 2) CON plus 0.28% sow pack (SP) to determine the effect of Bacillus subtilis, essential oil, chromium and glucose as sow pack supplementation on sows and piglets. During the overall study, sows fed the SP diet increased body weight of sow after weanling and farrowing, sow back-fat thickness on d 110 , average daily gain of piglets, the level of immunoglobulin-G (IgG) and insulin on d 14 lactating and after weanling and decreased body weight loss, the level of cortisol and glucose on d 14 lactating as well as the level of cortisol after weanling 3 d (P less than 0.05). In conclusion, the results indicated that supplementation of sow pack diet increased performance of sows and piglets, IgG, insulin of blood and decreased the cortisol and glucose in the blood profiles of sows.