Abstract
Newborn piglets absorb colostrum constituents intact through neonatal pinocytosis, during which physiological anemia occurs due to hemodilution by maternal colostrum. Thereafter, iron deficiency-anemia develops due to poor endowment with iron and to the insufficient supply of iron from sow's milk. This type of anemia can be prevented by an intramuscular injection of iron dextran. Since piglets are able to absorb nonnutritional macromolecular compounds such as polyvinylpyrrolidone through neonatal pinocytosis, the iron dextran orally administered soon after birth will probably prevent the development of iron-deficiency anemia. The present experiment was conducted to examine this possibility. Ninety-one cross-bred piglets, weighing about 1.5kg at birth, from eleven litters were used in four experiments. They were housed with their dams in concrete-floored pens and not offered a creep ration throughout a four-week experimental period. The iron-treated piglets were given 100mg iron orally as iron dextran 3-8, 24-36 or 72-96 hours after birth and blood was taken from anterior vena cava at one-week interval to determine hemoglobin, hematcrit and red blood cell count. The iron dextran administered 3-8 hours after birth was completely effective in preventing iron deficiency-anemia throughout the experimental period. Mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration were higher in the treated piglets than in the untreated piglets, indicating that the red blood cells of the anemic piglets were microcytic, hypochromic (Experiments 1 and 2). A similar result was obtained when iron dextran was administered orally 24-36 hours after birth (Experiment 2). When the iron administration was done 72-96 hours after birth, hemoglobin and hematcrit were not maintained with adequate levels until four weeks of age (Experiments 3 and 4).
