Inclusion of dietary L-arginine supplementation during late gestation and lactation on litter performance in sow

Sureshkumar, S., Park, J.H. and Kim, I.H. 2022. Inclusion of dietary L-arginine supplementation during late gestation and lactation on litter performance in sow. Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology, 22:177-185.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary L-arginine supplementation on growth performance, litter characteristics, and litter performance in sows during late gestation and lactation. Twelve multiparous sows (Landrace x Yorkshire) were allocated to one of three treatments with four replicates per treatment. The dietary treatments were divided into two phases (I) gestation stage: CON-Basal diet, TRT1- CON + 0.03% L-arginine, and TRT2- CON + 0.06% L-arginine. (II) Farrowing stage: CON-Basal diet, TRT1- CON + 0.06% L-arginine, and TRT2- CON + 0.11% L-arginine. During late-gestation and lactation significant reductions were observed on body weight loss and backfat thickness loss of sows fed L-arginine supplemented diet. Moreover, no significant effects were observed on body weight (BW), backfat thickness, average daily feed intake (ADFI), body condition score, and estrus interval among the L-arginine treatments in sows. However, results indicated that dietary supplement of L-arginine had increased (P<0.05) body weight of piglets at birth and weaning. Further, there was linear improvement on average daily gain (ADG) of piglets. In summary, dietary L-arginine supplementation during late-gestation and lactation had beneficial effect on survival rate and growth performance (birth weight) and weaning weight of piglets.