Effect of Protein Feeding Level during Pregnancy on Reproductive Performance in Swine

Abstract

Twenty-two Landrace gilts averaging 127.8kg body weight initially were used in an experiment which was conducted through two successive reproductive cycles to clarify the effect of protein level during pregnancy on reproductive performance. The animals were divided into three dietary groups. Throughout gestation period they were individually hand-fed meal diets at the rate of 2.5kg per head daily to provide daily intakes of 400, 325 and 250g protein per head, respectively. The protein level had no significant effect on weight gain of the dam during gestation, though dams receiving higher level of protein during gestation had the trend of greater weight gains than dams receiving lower level of protein, and on weight loss at farrowing for two successive reproductive cycles. Regarding average weight loss of sows during lactation, sows receiving the highest level of protein during gestation in the second reproductive cycle showed greater weight loss than sows receiving the lowest level of protein (31. 4vs. 20.5kg). In the first and second reproductive cycles, the number of live pigs farrowed per litter, litter weight at birth and average birth weight of pigs were not significantly affected by the protein intake of dams during gestation. Also at 15 days of age and at weaning time, the number of pigs, average weight of pigs and litter weight were not significantly affected by the level of protein fed to dams during gestation. The daily intake of 250g protein of dams during gestation was sufficient to meet satisfactory reproductive performance.