Dietary spray-dried plasma supplementation in late-gestation and lactation enhanced productive performance and immune responses of lactating sows and their litters

Kwangwook Kim¹, Byeonghyeon Kim², Hyunjin Kyoung³, Yanhong Liu¹, Joy Campbell⁴, Minho Song³^,^*, Peng Ji⁵^,^**

¹Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, United States.

²Animal Nutrition & Physiology Team, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration, Wanju 55365, Korea.

³Division of Animal and Dairy Science, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea.

⁴APC, Inc., Ankeny, IA 50021, United States.

⁵Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, United States.

^*Corresponding Author: Minho Song, Division of Animal and Dairy Science, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea, Republic of. Phone: +82-42-821-5776. E-mail: mhsong@cnu.ac.kr.

^**Corresponding Author: Peng Ji, Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, United States. Phone: +1-530-752-6469. E-mail: penji@ucdavis.edu.

© Copyright 2021 Korean Society of Animal Science and Technology. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: May 09, 2021; Revised: Jun 02, 2021; Accepted: Jun 03, 2021

Published Online: Jul 26, 2021

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of spray-dried plasma (SDP) supplementation during late gestation and lactation on productive performance and immune responses of sows and their litters. Twelve sows (227.78 ± 2.16 kg average body weight; 2.0 average parity) were randomly allotted to two dietary treatments: a basal diet (CON) and the basal diet supplemented with 1% SDP. Sows were fed experimental diets from d 30 before farrowing to weaning of their piglets. Blood samples were collected from sows on d 1, 3, and 7 of lactation and from two randomly selected nursing pigs per litter on d 3 and 7 after birth, and d 1, 3, and 7 after weaning. Productive performance and immune responses of sows and their piglets were measured. There was a trend of less body weight loss in sows supplemented with SDP (<italic>p </italic>< 0.10) during the lactation period and a trend of greater (<italic>p</italic> < 0.10) average daily gain in SDP piglets compared to those in the CON group. Sows in the SDP group tended to have lower (<italic>p</italic> < 0.10) serum concentrations of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), and cortisol on d 3 and lower serum concentration of TNF-α on d 7 compared with sows in CON group. In comparison with CON piglets, piglets from SDP sows tended to have lower (<italic>p</italic> < 0.10) serum concentrations of TNF-α, TGF-β1, and cortisol on d 7 after birth, lower (<italic>p</italic> < 0.10) serum TNF-α and C-reactive protein on d 3 and 7 after weaning, and greater (<italic>p</italic> < 0.10) average daily gain after weaning. Moreover, weaned pigs from sows fed SDP had significantly lower (<italic>p</italic> < 0.05) serum concentrations of cortisol and TGF-β1 on d 3 and 7 postweaning, respectively, than CON piglets. In conclusion, spray-dried plasma supplementation in sow diets from late gestation to weaning improved the productive performance of sows and their offspring; the beneficial effects of SDP may be mediated in part through modulation of immune responses of both sows and piglets.

Keywords: spray-dried plasma; lactating sows; productive performance; immune responses; weaned pigs