Efecto de incrementar el nivel de alimentación al final de la gestación sobre la duración y el rendimiento al parto de la cerda

Resumen

The modern sow, is associated with a greater number of piglets born alive and in many cases, smaller piglet weight at birth in average plus greater heterogeneity; factors associated with increased pre-weaning mortality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of increasing the feeding level of the three last weeks of gestation; on the productive performance at farrowing, its duration and potential difficulties. The study was conducted in a commercial farm with 85 sows, divided into two homogeneous groups: "young" (gilts and 1st parity) and "multi-parity" sows (2nd to 6th parity), over four chronological weeks. The sows followed the farm feeding protocol based on recovering their body condition (BC) (0-35 d) and their respective gestation feeding curve (35-90 d). Thereafter, three balanced subgroups were fed differently for the last three gestation weeks regarding the feeding level: one following the protocol of the farm (STD) and the other two subgroups, supplemented with 0.5 and 1,0 kg/d. The results suggest that supplementation with 0,5 kg/d did not worsen the productive parameters and even increased by 100 g the average weight of the live piglets at birth. Besides, adding 1,0 kg/d did not improve the weight at birth beyond supplementing at 0,5 kg/d; nevertheless, it dramatically increased farrowing duration (32%) (p=0,022), the need for assistance (p=0,011), and the number of stillborns.