Effect of Maternal Flavour Conditioning Combined with Organic and Inorganic Iron-Supplemented Creep Feed on Piglet Performance and Haemoglobin Status

TL;DR

This study shows that anise-flavored, iron-supplemented creep feed can help prevent iron deficiency anemia in piglets, reducing the need for injections.

Contribution

The study introduces maternal flavor conditioning combined with iron-supplemented creep feed as a novel strategy to improve piglet iron status.

Findings

Anise-flavored, iron-supplemented creep feed achieved comparable haemoglobin and body weight to iron injections.

Maternal flavor conditioning increased piglet creep feed interaction and decreased suckling events.

Iron supplementation via creep feed effectively prevented iron deficiency anemia regardless of maternal flavor exposure.

Abstract

Traditional treatment protocols for piglets suffering from iron deficiency anaemia are currently lacking from both cost, labour and welfare perspectives. Dietary iron supplements during the suckling phase are problematic due to variable habituation to creep feed consumption. Maternal flavour conditioning may resolve this variability. This study evaluated the role of anise flavoured, iron supplemented creep, with or without maternal anise conditioning on the iron status and growth performance of piglets. Anise flavoured, iron supplemented creep achieved comparable haemoglobin and body weight status to groups receiving an iron injection. These findings merit further evaluation of iron-fortified creep feed as a supplementary strategy for piglets.

Iron injections are vital but imperfect against iron deficiency anaemia (IDA). This experiment explored the effects on piglets of maternal flavour conditioning and the voluntary intake of anise flavoured, iron-supplemented creep feed compared with iron injections. The experiment was a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement: ±maternal exposure to dietary anise flavour and ±intramuscular injections of piglets. Twenty-three sows and their litters (242 piglets) were randomly allocated to one of four treatments (n = 5 or 6 per treatment): no flavour plus no injection (NF + NI); no flavour plus iron injection (NF + I); flavour plus no injection (F + NI); and flavour plus iron injection (F + I). All piglets could access anise flavoured, iron-supplemented creep feed (organic and inorganic forms) from D2 of birth. Sow feed intake and milk anethole concentration, piglet body weight (BW) and average daily gain (ADG), creep feed disappearance, piglet behavioural time budgets, and piglet blood glucose and haemoglobin concentrations were determined. Over the four-week study, the only significant differences found were that iron-injected piglets had reduced blood glucose (p = 0.036) on D14 and that maternal flavour provision increased the frequency of piglet creep feed interaction (p = 0.023) and decreased the frequency of suckling events (p = 0.009). In summary, maternal flavour conditioning reduced piglet creep feed neophobia without influencing consumption. The supplementation of creep feed with iron and anise flavour to piglets under the conditions of this trial was effective in preventing IDA, regardless of exposure to maternal flavouring conditioning.

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