DIETARY SUPPLEMENTATION OF Saccharomyces cerevisiae FERMENTATION METABOLITES DURING GESTATION AND LACTATION INCREASED SURVIVABILITY AND LITTER WEIGHT AT WEANING OF PIGLETS

Abstract

A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementa­tion of Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation metabolites (SFM) during gesta­tion and lactation on piglet performance. Thirty crossbred sows (4.23 ± 0.04 of average parity) were randomly allocated to two dietary treatments following a randomized complete block design, with parity as blocking factor. The treat­ments include basal gestating and lactating diets added with 0 or 2 kg/ton SFM. The feeding trial started at day 1 of gestation and continued until weaning. Pig­lets from sows fed SFM had higher adjusted 30-d litter weight (84.48 vs 69.91 kg; P<0.05) and tend to have lower preweaning mortality (4.33 vs 10.12%; P=0.0992). No differences were detected on other parameters measured. In con­clusion, supplementation of 2 kg/ton SFM on gestating and lactating diet has the potential to increase growth and survivability of piglets.