Abstract
The experiment was conducted to compare the efficiency of 2 iron preparations, iron dextran and gleptoferron, and to determine the minimum requirement of injectable iron for preventing piglet anemia. In the first experiment, piglets were divided into 2 groups and one group was injected intramuscularly with 100mg iron from iron dextran at 3 days of age and another group was not treated. All piglets were not offered creep feed before 24 days of age. Hemoglobin and hematocrit were signficantly higher in the iron treated group than in the untreated group and red blood cell was rapidly increased in numbers by the iron injection. However, the prevention of anemia by 100mg iron was unstable later in the nursing period, when 9mg of hemoglobin/100ml blood was used as a minimum standard of adequate hemoglobin concentration. In the second experiment, the single injection of 1ml iron dextran (100mg iron) or gleptoferron (200mg iron) was done at 4 days of age and creep feed was offered after 7 days of age. Hemoglobin and hematocrit were higher in the gleptoferron group than in the iron dextran group, reflecting the difference of injected iron levels. The mean corpuscular hemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume were also related to the administered iron levels. In the third experiment, when in total 200mg iron was administered from iron dextran, no difference was observed in hemoglobin nor hematocrit as compared with those from gleptoferron. Thus, iron from iron dextran and gleptoferron have a similar efficiency for piglet anemia. The last experiment showed there was no difference in hemoglobin and hematocrit betwen 200 mg and 400mg iron injection.
