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Acquiring real-time feeding information for monitoring lactating sows and their feeding requirements is a challenging task. Real-time data represent an important input for numerous tasks, such as disease monitoring, nutritional regulation, and feeding modeling. However, concurrently monitoring large numbers of sows and processing the real-time information for modeling is challenging using existing platforms. In this paper, we describe the design and development of a system that monitors and processes sows' feed and water consumption in real time. The system was custom-developed using open-source networking technologies. The system consists of three components: an electronic sow feeder connected to a central controller via a CAN network, an MQTT service cluster, and a data processing program. The MQTT service cluster uses Netty to develop a single service node, and it uses Zookeeper and Redis to complete node registration, discovery, and scheduling. The data processing program is based on Spark and Flink. We conducted comparative testing of three common codecs (Java Serializer, Marshalling, and Protostuff) to further speed up data transmission. The results of the experiment show that, with three service nodes, the system can concurrently monitor up to 20,000 sows. Moreover, the system achieves optimal performance when monitoring 10,000 sows at the same time, with a TPS of 6399 pcs/s and an RT of 643 ms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquiring real-time feeding information for monitoring lactating sows and their feeding requirements is a challenging task. Real-time data represent an important input for numerous tasks, such as disease monitoring, nutritional regulation, and feeding modeling. However, concurrently monitoring large numbers of sows and processing the real-time information for modeling is challenging using existing platforms. In this paper, we describe the design and development of a system that monitors and processes sows’ feed and water consumption in real time. The system was custom-developed using open-source networking technologies. The system consists of three components: an electronic sow feeder connected to a central controller via a CAN network, an MQTT service cluster, and a data processing program. The MQTT service cluster uses Netty to develop a single service node, and it uses Zookeeper and Redis to complete node registration, discovery, and scheduling. The data processing program is based on Spark and Flink. We conducted comparative testing of three common codecs (Java Serializer, Marshalling, and Protostuff) to further speed up data transmission. The results of the experiment show that, with three service nodes, the system can concurrently monitor up to 20,000 sows. Moreover, the system achieves optimal performance when monitoring 10,000 sows at the same time, with a TPS of 6399 pcs/s and an RT of 643 ms.

Objective This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of β-glucan with vitamin E supplementation on the physiological response, litter performance, blood profiles, immune response, and milk composition of lactating sows. Methods A total of 50 multiparous F1 sows (Yorkshire×Landrace) with an average body weight (BW) of 233.6±4.30 kg and an average parity of 4.00±0.307 and their litters were used in this experiment. All sows were allotted to one of five treatments, taking into consideration BW, backfat thickness, and parity in a completely randomized design with 10 replicates. The experimental diets included a corn–soybean meal-based basal diet with or without 0.1% or 0.2% β-glucan and 110 IU vitamin E/kg diet. Results All treatments added with β-glucan or vitamin E were statistically higher in the average daily feed intake (ADFI) of lactating sows compared to those of the control (Diet, p

This study evaluated the productive performance, blood parameters and antioxidant status of hyperprolific sows fed control diet or diet supplemented with brown seaweed and polyphenol mixture (SPM). Ninety-six farrowing highly prolific sows (Topigs 20) were assigned to two dietary treatments from day 107 ± 2 days of gestation until weaning: control diet and the same diet containing 15 g/day of SPM. Sows fed SPM diet tended to have lower backfat losses (P = 0.06) than control sows. No difference was observed in daily feed intake. No difference in litter birth weight or number of piglets per litter was observed. In sows fed SPM, average daily gain and weaning body weight of piglets were increased (P < 0.05). Haematochemical parameters, haptoglobin and blood total antiradical activity were not affected (P > 0.05) by dietary treatment. The paraoxonase-1 activity was higher (P < 0.05) in SPM sows than in the control. At the subsequent farrowing, the total number of piglets born was higher (P < 0.05) in sows fed SPM than in the control. Overall, these data suggest that dietary plant polyphenols and brown seaweeds improved the weaning weight of piglets and the total number of piglets born at the subsequent farrowing, modulating oxidative stress in lactating highly prolific sows.

Dietary supplementation with arginine (Arg) or glutamine (Gln) has been considered as an option to improve nursing performance in reproductive sows. This study investigated whether a low-level supplementation of Arg or Gln or a blend of both could modify milk nutrients and improve piglets' growth beyond weaning. Seventy-two multiparous sows were assigned to four groups: one group fed a control diet, three treatment groups fed the control diet supplemented with either 0.35% Arg, 0.35% Gln, or both, from day 108 of gestation until weaning at day 26 of lactation. Immediately after birth, the litters were cross fostered to 13 piglets and monitored until 2 wk after weaning. Sows body condition and litter growth were assessed. Colostrum and milk samples were collected for nutrient analyses. Plasma concentrations of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) around weaning were determined in sows and two representative piglets per litter. Supplementing Gln or the combination of Arg and Gln had no effect on the parameters studied. Arg supplementation increased weaning weight, while decreasing the variation of piglet weights 2 wk after weaning. There was no correlation with plasma IGF-1 since the hormone was not altered in sows or piglets. The colostral concentration of fat tended to increase in the Arg-group, whereas protein, lactose, energy, and polyamine concentrations remained unaffected. Milk samples obtained on day 12 and 25 of lactation were not influenced by dietary treatment. The data indicate that there might be a window of opportunity, explicitly at the onset of lactation, for dietary intervention by maternal dietary Arg supplementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated the productive performance, blood parameters and antioxidant status of hyperprolific sows fed control diet or diet supplemented with brown seaweed and polyphenol mixture (SPM). Ninety-six farrowing highly prolific sows (Topigs 20) were assigned to two dietary treatments from day 107 ± 2 days of gestation until weaning: control diet and the same diet containing 15 g/day of SPM. Sows fed SPM diet tended to have lower backfat losses (P = 0.06) than control sows. No difference was observed in daily feed intake. No difference in litter birth weight or number of piglets per litter was observed. In sows fed SPM, average daily gain and weaning body weight of piglets were increased (P < 0.05). Haematochemical parameters, haptoglobin and blood total antiradical activity were not affected (P > 0.05) by dietary treatment. The paraoxonase-1 activity was higher (P < 0.05) in SPM sows than in the control. At the subsequent farrowing, the total number of piglets born was higher (P < 0.05) in sows fed SPM than in the control. Overall, these data suggest that dietary plant polyphenols and brown seaweeds improved the weaning weight of piglets and the total number of piglets born at the subsequent farrowing, modulating oxidative stress in lactating highly prolific sows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-eight mixed parity sows (Line 241; DNA) and their offspring were used to evaluate live yeast supplementation during lactation with or without a pre/probiotic combination during the nursery period on lactation performance, lifetime growth performance, and immune response. On d 110 of gestation, sows were allotted to a lactation diet with or without a live yeast probiotic (0.10% Actisaf Sc 47 HR+; Phileo by Lesaffre, Milwaukee, WI). At weaning, their offspring (350 pigs; initially 6.1 ± 0.02 kg) were randomly assigned in a 2 × 2 factorial with main effects of sow treatment and nursery treatment consisting of a control diet or a diet with a yeast cell-wall prebiotic and Bacillus subtilis probiotic (0.10% YB; Phileo by Lesaffre, Milwaukee, WI) fed for 42 d followed by common diets fed until marketing. Two nursery pens were combined into 1 finishing pen, such that there were 5 and 10 pigs per pen with 17 or 18 and 8 or 9 replications per treatment during the nursery and finishing periods, respectively. There were no significant effects of yeast supplementation on lactation performance (P ≥ 0.079). There was a sow × nursery diet interaction (P = 0.024) on nursery ADG. Pigs from yeast fed sows had increased ADG when fed control nursery diets compared to pigs from control sows fed the control nursery diet with pigs fed pre/probiotic nursery diets intermediate, regardless of sow diet. Pigs from yeast fed sows tended (P = 0.067) to have greater final BW (d 165). A subset of pigs was sampled throughout their lifetime to determine serum porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae antibody sample-to-positive (S/P) ratios and percentage inhibition of Lawsonia intracellularis. There was a tendency for a PCV2 S/P ratio sow diet × day interaction (P = 0.097) where progeny from yeast fed sows had higher PCV2 S/P ratios at 101 d of age compared to control sow progeny (P = 0.046). There was a PCV2 S/P ratio nursery diet × day interaction (P = 0.036) where pigs fed a pre/probiotic combination had reduced S/P ratios at 66, 78, and 162 d of age (P ≥ 0.022); however, at 22 d of age pigs fed a pre/probiotic combination tended to have an increased S/P ratio (P = 0.051). In conclusion, effects of combining a yeast probiotic in lactation diets and a pre/probiotic in nursery diets were not additive. However, feeding a live yeast probiotic during lactation resulted in tendencies (P ≥ 0.10) for increased progeny final BW and HCW., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Animal Science. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

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Body protein losses in lactating sows have a negative impact on sow and litter performance. Improving dietary amino acid utilization may limit protein mobilization. The effects of dietary protein kinetics on sow body condition loss, blood plasma metabolites, and plasma insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), and also on litter gain during lactation, were investigated in this study. In total, 57 multiparous sows were fed one of three lactation diets with the same crude protein level: low level of slow protein diet (LSP) (8% slowly degradable protein of total protein), medium level of slow protein diet (MSP) (12% slowly degradable protein of total protein), or high level of slow protein diet (HSP) (16% slowly degradable protein of total protein) in a complete block design. Our results showed that HSP sows lost the least body weight compared to MSP and LSP sows (11.9 vs. 17.3 and 13.5 kg, respectively; p = 0.01), less body protein than MSP sows (1.0 vs. 2.1 kg; p = 0.01), and tended to lose less loin muscle thickness than LSP sows (1.7 vs. 4.9 mm; p = 0.09) between Day 2 to Day 21 post-farrowing. LSP sows had greatest plasma urea level on Day 6 than MSP and HSP sows (4.9 vs. 3.6 and 3.1 mmol/L, respectively; p < 0.01) and on Day 13 (5.6 vs. 4.1 and 3.7 mmol/L, respectively; p < 0.01). HSP sows had the lowest plasma urea level at Day 20 compared to LSP and MSP sows (4.0 vs. 5.5 and 4.9 mmol/L, respectively; p < 0.01). The average plasma urea level of Days 6, 13, and 20 post-farrowing was negatively correlated with slow protein intake (r = −0.49, p < 0.01). Litter gain, milk composition, and nitrogen output to the environment did not differ significantly among the treatment groups. Therefore, the dietary protein kinetics affected mobilization of maternal reserves in multiparous sows during lactation, with a high fraction of slow protein-sparing protein mobilization.

Using nurse sows is a common practice for intensive pig farming because large numbers of piglets per litter result from intensive breeding. This aim of this study was to compare reproductive parameters of nurse sows and non-nurse sows in relation to subsequent reproductive performance. The study evaluated 463 breeding sows that produced at least one litter. The sows were divided into two groups: non-nurse sows (350 sows) and nurse sows (113 sows) at their first farrowing. The average length of first lactation was 35.12 days for nurse sows and 29.79 days for non-nurse sows. At first parity, nurse sows weaned 5.18% more piglets than did non-nurse sows (P < 0.05). At second parity, nurse sows had 2.25% more live born piglets than did non-nurse sows. Nurse sows also had 9.59% more total live born piglets and they were removed from the breeding herd later (on average by 67.1 days) than were non-nurse sows. In conclusion, using sows as nurse sows in their first lactations provides a good solution when there are large numbers of piglets per litter, and this practice has no negative effect on sows' subsequent reproductive performance.

To study the role of hot-melt extruded (HME) selenium (Se) and in the lactating sows' reproductive performance and litter growth, a total of 60 crossbred sows (Yorkshire × Landrace; average body weight, 245.3 kg) were allotted to one of four treatments according to a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement. The performance of lactating sows was investigated in the different average room temperatures (high temperature (HT), 28.1 °C vs. low temperature (LT), 24.6 °C), and different selenium sources (INO, 0.15 mg common sodium selenite/kg diet; HME, 0.15 mg nano-sodium selenite/kg diet) during the summer season. At days 10 and 21, the serum glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity and Se concentration were greater in lactating sows fed HME compared with sows fed INO diet. The concentration of Se in the serum was greater in piglets from the HME treatment compared with piglets from the INO treatment. The HT treatment had a significantly higher body weight loss, backfat thickness loss, and weaning-to-estrus interval. The piglets' survivability, total weight gain, daily feed intake, and average daily gain during the lactation were greater in the LT sows compared with the HT sows. A higher blood cortisol concentration was observed in the HT sows compared with the LT. Selenium contents of milk at days 10 and 21 postpartum were increased by dietary supplementation of HME. In conclusion, the results of the present study demonstrated that there are no performance differences between sows fed different Se sources; however, HME supplementation increased serum and milk Se content, resulting in increased serum GPx concentration in sows and a greater serum Se in the litters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty multiparous sows (average parity 3.7±0.9 and initial BW 245.6±32.5 kg) were used to evaluate the effects of dietary standardized ileal digestible (SID) Lys-to-net energy (NE) ratios on nitrogen utilization throughout a 24-day lactation period. Sows were randomly assigned to one of five isoenergetic feeding programs that provided equally spaced and increasing Lys-to-NE ratios between 2.79 and 5.50 g SID Lys/Mcal NE. The feeding programs were generated by blending the two extreme diets in varying proportions using a precision feeding system and were provided to sows immediately after farrowing (d1) and until weaning at d 24 ± 1. At farrowing, litters were standardized to 12 piglets. Three nitrogen balances were conducted from d 4 to 7±1 (NB1), 12 to 15 ± 1 (NB2), and 20 to 23 ± 1 (NB3) using total urine collection and fecal grab sampling. Contrast statements were used to determine linear and quadratic effects of increasing Lys-to-NE ratios. Linear (LBL) and quadratic (QBL) broken-line and polynomial quadratic (QPM) models were used to determine the optimum dietary Lys-to-NE ratios for N retention. The Bayesian information criterion was used to assess best fit. Feeding program did not influence sow ADFI (5.96 ± 0.19 kg/d), BW change (-5.4 ± 4.1 kg) or change in backfat thickness (-2.0 ± 1.1 mm) over the entire 24-d lactation period, but piglet ADG increased with dietary Lys-to-NE ratio (linear; P < 0.05). Sow N intake increased with dietary Lys-to-NE ratio in NB2 and NB3 (linear; P< 0.001). Nitrogen retention (N intake - N output in urine and feces) increased with dietary Lys-to-NE ratio in all NB (linear; P = 0.05, P < 0.001, and P < 0.001 for NB1 -to 3, respectively). The QPM showed an inflection point at 3.75 g Lys/Mcal NE during NB1 and the QBL model showed break points at 2.87 and 4.83 g Lys/Mcal NE in NB2 and NB3, respectively. Nitrogen retention in milk increased with dietary Lys-to-NE ratio only in NB1 (linear; P < 0.05) and the QPM showed inflection points at 4.31, 4.37, and 4.90 g Lys/Mcal NE for NB1-to-3, respectively. Maternal nitrogen retention (N intake - N output in urine, feces, and milk) decreased and then increased in NB1 (quadratic; P < 0.01) and increased in NB2 and NB3 (linear; P < 0.01) with dietary Lys-to-NE ratio. The QPM showed inflection points at 4.01 and 3.01 g Lys/Mcal NE for NB1 and NB2, respectively, and the QBL model showed a breakpoint at 4.83 g Lys/Mcal NE for NB3. To optimize N retention, feeding programs with a Lys-to-NE ratio between 3.75 and 4.31, 2.87 and 4.37, and 4.83 and 4.90 g SID Lys/Mcal NE should be considered during early, mid, and peak lactation, respectively. Therefore, precision feeding programs can be developed to match the ideal SID Lys-to-NE ratio more closely at different stages of lactation to improve sow performance and reduce nitrogen excretion to the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Efficient utilization of dietary fibers (DFs) is important for optimizing feed resource utilization and animal health. The aim of the current study was to assess the effects of DFs with varying physicochemical properties (bulky, viscous, and fermentable) on fermentation kinetics and microbial composition during in vitro fermentation by fecal inoculum from lactating sow. According to the physicochemical properties, three different DFs, lignocellulose (LC), modified cassava starch (MCS) and konjac flour (KF) were selected as bulky fiber, fermentable fiber and viscous fiber respectively. Gas production, short‐chain fatty acids (SCFAs) profiles and microbial composition were monitored during the fermentation. RESULTS: Results showed that the gas production in 72 h (GP72h) ranked as: KF > MCS > LC (P < 0.05). The halftime of asymptotic gas production ranked as: KF < MCS = LC (P < 0.001). At 36 h of fermentation, MCS group showed higher concentrations of formic acid and lactate than LC and KF groups, whereas KF group showed higher concentrations of propionate and butyrate than LC and MCS groups (P < 0.05). At 72 h of fermentation, KF group showed higher concentrations of formic acid, lactate and propionate than LC and MCS groups, whereas MCS group showed higher concentrations of acetate and butyrate than LC and KF groups (P < 0.05). At 36 h of fermentation, Anaerovibrio and Erysipelatoclostridium abundances were higher in KF group, whereas Proteiniclasticum abundance was higher in MCS group. At 72 h of fermentation, the abundance of Fibrobacter in LC group was higher than that in MCS and KF groups. In addition, we also observed that the abundances of certain specific bacteria (Anaerovibrio and Erysipelatoclostridium) were closely related to the SCFAs production (propionate and butyrate) at different fermentation times. CONCLUSION: Collectively, the present study revealed that KF is a fast fermentation fiber which could produce propionate and butyrate rapidly, whereas LC is difficult to be fermented by bacteria. In addition, the fermentation of DFs with different physicochemical properties had divergent impacts on microbial composition and SCFA production. These findings deepen our understanding of the mechanisms of interaction between DFs and intestinal microbiota, and provide new ideas for the rational use of fiber resources in lactating sows. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat stress negatively influences milk production and disrupts normal physiological activity of lactating sows, but the precious mechanisms by which hyperthermia adversely affects milk synthesis in sows still remain for further study. Circular RNAs are a novel class of non-coding RNAs with regulatory functions in various physiological and pathological processes. The expression profiles and functions of circRNAs of sows in lactogenesis remain largely unknown. In the present study, long-term heat stress (HS) resulted in a greater concentration of serum HSP70, LDH, and IgG, as well as decreased levels of COR, SOD, and PRL. HS reduced the total solids, fat, and lactose of sow milk, and HS significantly depressed CSNαs1, CSNαs2, and CSNκ biosynthesis. Transcriptome sequencing of lactating porcine mammary glands identified 42 upregulated and 25 downregulated transcripts in HS vs. control. Functional annotation of these differentially-expressed transcripts revealed four heat-induced genes involved in lactation. Moreover, 29 upregulated and 21 downregulated circRNA candidates were found in response to HS. Forty-two positively correlated circRNA-mRNA expression patterns were constructed between the four lactogenic genes and differentially expressed circRNAs. Five circRNA-miRNA-mRNA post-transcriptional networks were identified involving genes in the HS response of lactating sows. In this study we establish a valuable resource for circRNA biology in sow lactation. Analysis of a circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network further uncovered a novel layer of post-transcriptional regulation that could be used to improve sow milk production.

Objective This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary cashew nut testa (CNT) as an alternative feed ingredient to wheat bran on reproductive performance, litter performance, milk composition, and blood profiles of gestating sows. Methods Forth multiparous sows (Yorkshire×Landrace) were fed experimental diets starting at 35 days of pregnancy and an initial average body weight (BW) of 211.53±8.86 kg. Each sow was assigned to a treatment based on BW, backfat thickness (BF) and parity with 10 sows per treatment. Treatments were as follows: i) corn-soybean meal based diet with 6% of wheat bran (C0); ii) basal diet with 2% of CNT and 4% of wheat bran (C2); iii) basal diet with 4% of CNT and 2% of wheat bran (C4); and iv) basal diet with 6% of CNT (C6). Results There were no statistically significant differences in BW and BF of gestating sows throughout the experimental period. However, changes in BF (p = 0.09) and the daily feed intake of sows (p = 0.09) tended to linearly increase during the lactation period. The weaning to estrus interval (WEI) showed a quadratic response to CNT treatment (p = 0.02), and the C2 diet showed the shortest WEI. Litter birth weight (p = 0.04) and piglet birth weight (p = 0.06) were linearly decreased with increase in CNT. Furthermore, there had no significant differences in piglet weight and litter weight in 21 day. Insulin concentration at day 70 of gestation was linearly reduced with increasing CNT level in diets (p = 0.03). Conclusion When 6% CNT replaced wheat bran in gestating sow diets, there were no negative effects on sow performance, but litter birth weight and piglet birth weight were decreased when CNT level increased in gestating sow diets.

Keeping sows in single housing systems with farrowing crates can affect animal health and welfare. The aim of this study was to investigate the behaviour and health of lactating sows kept in a novel group housing system which could be easily installed on commercial farms. The housing system had five farrowing pens without crates, a common area and an area only available for piglets. Data from 25 sows were collected in five batches. Sows’ location and activity, suckling behaviour and floor soiling were analysed by video or direct observation. Skin lesions were determined using a lesion score. Group housing of sows did not increase the number of skin injuries, since the lesion score decreased during the housing period (19.2 vs. 16.3 vs. 12; p

The present study investigated the effect of optimizing the total dietary arginine (Arg)-to-lysine (Lys) ratios on the metabolism of lactating sows and piglet performance by supplementation with L- Arg during lactation. A total of 200 multiparous sows (three to six parities, Yorkshire × Landrace) were selected and randomly and equally assigned to five groups in lactation, and finally, 36, 34, 35, 36, and 33 dams completed the study in the dietary treatments, respectively, where the diets consisted of five step-up Arg-to-Lys ratios (0.9, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3) by the addition of 0%, 0.10%, 0.20%, 0.30%, and 0.40% Arg. The diets contained 3.37 to 3.38 Mcal of digestible energy/kg energy, 17.73% to 17.75% crude protein, and 0.98% to 1.01% Lys and were fed ad libitum during lactation. The performance of sows and suckling piglets was measured, and plasma and milk samples were collected for analysis. The feed intake of sows as well as litter weight gain during lactation increased linearly (P ≤ 0.05), while maternal backfat and milk composition were not affected (P > 0.05) as the dietary Arg-to-Lys ratios increased. Analyzed plasma biochemical indices, including concentrations of free Arg, Orn, and Glu, and prolactin, insulin, and follicle-stimulating hormone, responded linearly (P ≤ 0.05) to increases in dietary Arg-to-Lys ratios. The dietary Arg-to-Lys ratios of 1.01 and 1.02 were optimal for maternal feed intake and litter weight gain, based on broken-line models. Collectively, the results of this study indicate that increasing total dietary Arg-to-Lys ratios in lactation was beneficial for the performance of lactating sows and suckling piglets, and dietary Arg-to-Lys ratios of 1.01 and 1.02 were optimal, from regression analyses, for the practical feeding of lactating sows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using nurse sows is a common practice for intensive pig farming because large numbers of piglets per litter result from intensive breeding. This aim of this study was to compare reproductive parameters of nurse sows and non-nurse sows in relation to subsequent reproductive performance. The study evaluated 463 breeding sows that produced at least one litter. The sows were divided into two groups: non-nurse sows (350 sows) and nurse sows (113 sows) at their first farrowing. The average length of first lactation was 35.12 days for nurse sows and 29.79 days for non-nurse sows. At first parity, nurse sows weaned 5.18% more piglets than did non-nurse sows (P < 0.05). At second parity, nurse sows had 2.25% more live born piglets than did non-nurse sows. Nurse sows also had 9.59% more total live born piglets and they were removed from the breeding herd later (on average by 67.1 days) than were non-nurse sows. In conclusion, using sows as nurse sows in their first lactations provides a good solution when there are large numbers of piglets per litter, and this practice has no negative effect on sows' subsequent reproductive performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat stress negatively influences milk production and disrupts normal physiological activity of lactating sows, but the precious mechanisms by which hyperthermia adversely affects milk synthesis in sows still remain for further study. Circular RNAs are a novel class of non-coding RNAs with regulatory functions in various physiological and pathological processes. The expression profiles and functions of circRNAs of sows in lactogenesis remain largely unknown. In the present study, long-term heat stress (HS) resulted in a greater concentration of serum HSP70, LDH, and IgG, as well as decreased levels of COR, SOD, and PRL. HS reduced the total solids, fat, and lactose of sow milk, and HS significantly depressed CSNαs1, CSNαs2, and CSNκ biosynthesis. Transcriptome sequencing of lactating porcine mammary glands identified 42 upregulated and 25 downregulated transcripts in HS vs. control. Functional annotation of these differentially-expressed transcripts revealed four heat-induced genes involved in lactation. Moreover, 29 upregulated and 21 downregulated circRNA candidates were found in response to HS. Forty-two positively correlated circRNA-mRNA expression patterns were constructed between the four lactogenic genes and differentially expressed circRNAs. Five circRNA-miRNA-mRNA post-transcriptional networks were identified involving genes in the HS response of lactating sows. In this study we establish a valuable resource for circRNA biology in sow lactation. Analysis of a circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network further uncovered a novel layer of post-transcriptional regulation that could be used to improve sow milk production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an end-to-end refined two-stream RGB-D Faster region convolutional neural network (R-CNN) algorithm, which fuses RGB-D image features in the feature extraction stage for recognising five postures of lactating sows (standing, sitting, sternal recumbency, ventral recumbency, and lateral recumbency) in scenes at a pig farm. Based on the Faster R-CNN algorithm, two CNNs were first used to extract the RGB image features and depth image features. Then, a proposed single RGB-D region proposal network was used to generate the regions of interest (ROIs) for the two types of image feature maps in RGB-D. Next, the features of the RGB-D ROIs were extracted and merged using a feature fusion layer. Finally, the fused features of the RGB-D ROIs were input into a Fast R-CNN to obtain the recognition results. A total of 12,600 pairs of RGB-D images of five postures were obtained by a Kinect v2.0 sensor and were randomly selected from the first 21 of 28 pens as the training set, and 5533 pairs were randomly selected from the remaining 7 pens as the test set. The proposed method was used to recognise the five postures of lactating sows. The recognition accuracy of the concatenation fusion method was the highest for the test set with average precisions for the five categories of lactating sow postures of 99.74%, 96.49%, 90.77%, 90.91%, and 99.45%, respectively. Compared with related methods (RGB-only method, depth-only method, RGB-D early fusion, and later fusion), our method attained the highest mean average precision. • A refined two-stream RGB-D Faster R-CNN is proposed for recognising sow postures. • A feature-level fusion strategy is designed to extract RGB-D image features. • Regions of interest of RGB-D image are generated by one region proposal network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters for thermoregulation traits and the relationships with performance of Large White lactating sows reared in a tropical humid climate. The thermoregulation traits were rectal temperature (RT), cutaneous temperature (CT) and respiratory rate (RR) during lactation measured in the afternoon (1200 h) and in the morning (0700 h). The production traits were sow’s average daily feed intake (ADFI), litter BW gain (LBWg) and sow’s proportion of BW change between farrowing and weaning (BWc). Complete data included 931 lactating performance on 329 Large White sows from the INRA experimental unit in Guadeloupe (French West Indies). Random regression models using linear spline functions were used for longitudinal data (RT, CT, RR and daily feed intake). Results showed that when ignoring values at the beginning and the end of lactation, the traits studied can be treated as the same trait throughout days of lactation, with fairly constant heritability and variance. However, largest heritabilities and genetic variances were estimated in mid-lactation. Heritability estimates on average performance during lactation were low to moderate for thermoregulation traits (0.35±0.09 for RT, 0.34±0.12 for CT and 0.39±0.13 for RR). Heritability estimates for production traits were 0.26±0.08 for ADFI, 0.20±0.07 for BWc and 0.31±0.09 for LBWg. Significant genetic correlations between thermoregulation traits and production traits were only obtained for ADFI and RR (0.35±0.12). From this study it can be concluded that thermoregulation traits are heritable, indicating that there are genetic differences in heat stress tolerance in lactating Large White sows.

This study aimed to test the effects of changing omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid (FA) ratios in corn–soybean meal-based diet on performance, serum lipid profile and colostrum and milk nutrient contents of lactating sows as well as performance of suckling piglets. In total, 32 multiparous sows (Landrace × Yorkshire) were randomly allocated into one of four dietary treatments with eight replicates per treatment. The treatment diets were fed 7 days before farrowing until weaning. The omega-3 FA used in the experiment was from linseed oil and was coated using a spray-drying method. The dietary treatments consisted of control (CON, corn–soybean meal-based basal diet with omega-6 : omega-3 FA ratios of 25 : 1), and basal diets (CON) containing omega-6: omega-3 FA ratios at 20 : 1, 15 : 1 and 10 : 1 levels. Inclusion of omega-6 and omega-3 FA at different ratios in the feed did not affect (P > 0.05) the performance, nutrient digestibility and milk nutrient composition of sows. The concentrations of high-density lipid cholesterol (HDL-C) increased (P < 0.05) and the low-density lipid cholesterol (LDL-C) tended to be reduced (P = 0.08) at weaning for sows fed 10 : 1 omega 6 : omega-3 ratio diet. The bodyweights (BW) and average daily gains (ADG) of piglets born from sows fed 10 : 1 omega-6 : omega-3 FA diet were greater (P < 0.05) at Week 3 and overall respectively. The BW of piglets raised from sows fed all treatment diets were heavier (P < 0.05) at Week 4 (weaning) than those in the CON. Positive correlations between dietary omega-6 : omega-3 FA ratio and serum HDL-C concentrations and a negative correlations between dietary omega-6 : omega-3 FA ratio and serum LDL-C concentrations for sows at weaning were observed. In addition, a positive correlation between omega-6 : omega-3 FA in the diet and ADG in piglets was also observed. In conclusion, inclusion of omega-6 : omega-3 FA at different ratios in different proportions did not affect sow performance, while increasing HDL-C and tending to reduce LDL-C in serum lipids. However, the piglets born to sows fed 10 : 1 diets benefitted, with increased BW and ADG. The balance of omega-6 : omega-3 fatty acids is important for health and longevity rather than the absolute amount, therefore this study focused on evaluating the dietary supplementation of varying ratios of omega-6 : omega-3 fatty acids (25 : 1, 20 : 1, 15 : 1 and 10 : 1) on performance of sows and piglets. Reduction of the omega-6 : omega-3 fatty acid ratio in the diet did not affect reproductive performance but positively affected piglet performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lactoferrin (LF) is a sialylated iron-binding glycoprotein, occurring in several biological secretions like milk, saliva, and seminal fluids and is a major component of a mammalian innate immune system. It plays multiple protective roles against large group of microorganisms and performs anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activities. The concentration of serum LF in gilt (primiparous sow) and their piglets remains unknown. We determined serum LF concentration in gilts during gestation and lactation to that of 19-d-old piglets, including sow-fed and formula-fed piglets using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We found that the concentration of serum LF in gilts varied during gestation (0.77 ± 0.10 µg/mL) and lactation (0.62 ± 0.11 µg/mL). The mean concentration of serum LF in gilts (0.72 ± 0.06 µg/mL) was significantly higher than that of piglets (0.42 ± 0.07 µg/mL, P = 0.004). Additionally, a marginal significant difference (P =0.06) was observed for serum LF concentration in sow-fed piglets (0.42 ± 0.03 µg/mL) at 19 d old compared to that of formula-fed piglets (0.33 ± 0.04 µg/mL) at 37 d old. This study provides noble information regarding the serum LF concentration in the healthy gilts and piglets and thereby the data can be used as a standard reference point for future studies on the role of LF in pig reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to determine total heat production (THP) in individual sows and litters can be logistically difficult and often requires the use of multiple animals to generate data on a per room basis. Furthermore, these systems may be costly to construct, precluding their use by many researchers. Therefore, the objective was to develop a low-cost indirect calorimetry system to determine THP in individual lactating sows and litters. Six indirect calorimeters were constructed to house 1 sow and litter in a crate throughout farrowing and a 21-d lactation period. Farrowing crates were placed within a high-density polyethylene pan filled with water and then a polyvinyl chloride frame was constructed around the crate. The frame provided a structure to hold the inlet and outlet air pipes, feed and water inlets, air circulation fans, and a polyethylene plastic sheet that was secured at the bottom of the frame and submerged under water to maintain an air tight seal. Chamber accuracies for O2 and CO2 were evaluated by ethanol combustion. One week pre-farrowing, 6 pregnant multiparous sows (parity 2.9 ± 0.9; 218.3 ± 38.6 kg BW) were housed individually in each farrowing crate and the calorimeters were maintained at thermoneutral conditions (20.9 ± 2.6°C and 43.7 ± 18.6% relative humidity) throughout lactation. On lactation day 4, 8, 14, and 18, indirect calorimetry was performed on all sows and their litters, as well as 2 piglets from a sentinel litter to determine THP and the respiratory quotient (RQ). Sentinel piglet data were used to estimate THP and RQ for the sows independent of the litter. Sow + litter THP (kcal/h) increased (P = 0.01; 16.6%) on day 8 compared to day 4 and was greater (27.3%) on day 14 and day 18 compared to day 4 and day 8. Sow THP was greater (P = 0.01) on day 8 (401.19 ± 17.15 kcal/h) and day 14 (430.79 ± 12.42 kcal/h) compared to day 4 (346.16 ± 16.62 kcal/h), and was greater on day 14 compared to day 8, and on day 18 (386.16 ± 20.02 kcal/h) compared to day 14. No sow + litter RQ differences (P = 0.21; 1.02 ± 0.04) were detected by day of lactation. However, sow RQ was reduced (P = 0.01) on day 14 (0.98 ± 0.02) compared to day 4 (1.03 ± 0.03), day 8 (1.02 ± 0.02), and day 18 (1.04 ± 0.03). In summary, this cost-effective system (total cost: $1,892 USD) can allow researchers to accurately evaluate THP in individual lactating sows and their litters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to determine total heat production (THP) in individual sows and litters can be logistically difficult and often requires the use of multiple animals to generate data on a per room basis. Furthermore, these systems may be costly to construct, precluding their use by many researchers. Therefore, the objective was to develop a low-cost indirect calorimetry system to determine THP in individual lactating sows and litters. Six indirect calorimeters were constructed to house 1 sow and litter in a crate throughout farrowing and a 21-d lactation period. Farrowing crates were placed within a high-density polyethylene pan filled with water and then a polyvinyl chloride frame was constructed around the crate. The frame provided a structure to hold the inlet and outlet air pipes, feed and water inlets, air circulation fans, and a polyethylene plastic sheet that was secured at the bottom of the frame and submerged under water to maintain an air tight seal. Chamber accuracies for O2 and CO2 were evaluated by ethanol combustion. One week pre-farrowing, 6 pregnant multiparous sows (parity 2.9 ± 0.9; 218.3 ± 38.6 kg BW) were housed individually in each farrowing crate and the calorimeters were maintained at thermoneutral conditions (20.9 ± 2.6°C and 43.7 ± 18.6% relative humidity) throughout lactation. On lactation day 4, 8, 14, and 18, indirect calorimetry was performed on all sows and their litters, as well as 2 piglets from a sentinel litter to determine THP and the respiratory quotient (RQ). Sentinel piglet data were used to estimate THP and RQ for the sows independent of the litter. Sow + litter THP (kcal/h) increased (P = 0.01; 16.6%) on day 8 compared to day 4 and was greater (27.3%) on day 14 and day 18 compared to day 4 and day 8. Sow THP was greater (P = 0.01) on day 8 (401.19 ± 17.15 kcal/h) and day 14 (430.79 ± 12.42 kcal/h) compared to day 4 (346.16 ± 16.62 kcal/h), and was greater on day 14 compared to day 8, and on day 18 (386.16 ± 20.02 kcal/h) compared to day 14. No sow + litter RQ differences (P = 0.21; 1.02 ± 0.04) were detected by day of lactation. However, sow RQ was reduced (P = 0.01) on day 14 (0.98 ± 0.02) compared to day 4 (1.03 ± 0.03), day 8 (1.02 ± 0.02), and day 18 (1.04 ± 0.03). In summary, this cost-effective system (total cost: $1,892 USD) can allow researchers to accurately evaluate THP in individual lactating sows and their litters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keeping sows in single housing systems with farrowing crates can affect animal health and welfare. The aim of this study was to investigate the behaviour and health of lactating sows kept in a novel group housing system which could be easily installed on commercial farms. The housing system had five farrowing pens without crates, a common area and an area only available for piglets. Data from 25 sows were collected in five batches. Sows' location and activity, suckling behaviour and floor soiling were analysed by video or direct observation. Skin lesions were determined using a lesion score. Group housing of sows did not increase the number of skin injuries, since the lesion score decreased during the housing period (19.2 vs. 16.3 vs. 12; p < .05). Before the piglets left the pens, sows were mostly inside the pens (83.4%; p < .05) and the highest faecal-soiling was found in the common area. The common area was used intensively by the sows, particularly since the piglets left the pens (4th week: 63.5%). The suckling frequency remained constant (6th week: 1.2/h); cross-suckling occurred rarely (7.6%). Sows were able to perform natural behaviours in the new housing system, potentially increasing animal welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Longevity of the sows is a major concern in pig production, which is negatively affected when the sow body condition is not properly restored shortly after weaning. Therefore, feed intake (FI) becomes crucial to prevent the excessive body reserve mobilization during lactation, but also in promoting milk production and therefore maximizing litter performance. This situation is more exacerbated under heat stress conditions, in which FI is severely affected. The aim of the present study was to increase the sow FI and to maximize litter performance during lactation under heat stress conditions. A total of 20 Landrace x Large White sows were used. Animals were individually caged in farrowing crates one week before parturition according to their body weight, backfat thickness and parity and randomly assigned to two treatments (10 sows/treatment): Control diet, (C) or a diet containing a sensory additive (SA) included at 0.075% (Luctamax Sows, Lucta S.A., Barcelona, Spain). All diets were offered restricted from entry to the farrowing unit until parturition and ad libitum afterwards until weaning. For the sows' body weight (BW, kg) a scale was used; back fat (BF, mm) was registered by ultrasound echography (in mm). Both measurements were performed at the entry to the farrowing unit and at weaning. Piglets' performance was also monitored from birth to weaning (21 d of life). Higher temperature during the trial was over 30°C (reaching a maximum of 37℃). Data were analyzed by using the TTEST procedure of SAS. Results showed that SA sows increased up to 6.2% their FI compared with the C group (5.86 kg/d vs 5.52 kg/d, P = 0.08) from farrowing to weaning. Regarding the body reserves mobilization, BW (-24.7 kg vs -29.4 kg) and BF (-1.00 mm vs -3.30 mm) loses were numerically less in SA sows compared with C sows, respectively (P > 0.05). Finally, concerning performance of piglets, the inclusion of the SA tended to increase the growth during the first week after farrowing (0.174 kg/d vs 0.156 kg/d, P = 0.06) compared with the C group, respectively with no significant differences for the whole lactation period. Similarly, piglets weaning BW was slightly numerically greater for piglets born from SA sows compared with the control group (5.62 kg vs. 5.53, P > 0.05), respectively. Results suggest that the dietary inclusion of the sensory additive Luctamax Sows at 0.075% in the lactation diet from entry to the farrowing unit until weaning increased sows FI and prevented body reserves mobilization, having also benefits in the offspring, specially one week after farrowing. These results prove the potential of a sensory additive in helping the sows to cope with the lactation phase, especially under heat stress conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Liquid feeding system has been introduced to domestic swine farms, but negative cognition about liquid feeding system has been remained for feed waste decay related with poor management and microbial contamination. For these reasons, this study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding method in lactating sows. Methods A total of 30 mixed-parity (average 4.13) lactating sows (Yorkshire × Landrace) with an initial BW of 218.8 ± 19.5kg was used in a 3 week trial. Sows were allotted to 1 of 2 treatments in a completely randomized design by their body weight, backfat thickness, parity and alive litter weight. One of treatments was dry feeding and the other was liquid feeding (water to feed ratio, 1:1). Experimental diets contained 3265 kcal ME/kg, 12.6 % CP, 5.76 % EE, 1.09 % total lysine, 0.25 % total methionine, as fed basis. Results Dry feeding treatment had high body weight loss rather than liquid feeding treatment (P = 0.04). Dry feeding treatment had tendency to increase litter weight at 21d of lactation (P = 0.06) and litter weight gain (P = 0.04) during lactation period (0–3 week). Sows fed dry feeding method made milk containing high content of casein and total solid rather than sows fed liquid feeding method (P = 0.04). In addition, dry feeding treatment had tendency to higher content of milk fat, protein and solid not fat on 21d of lactation (P = 0.07). Sows fed dry feeding type also showed higher milk energy content in milk of 21d lactation (P = 0.05). Furthermore, liquid feeding treatment showed high occurrence in feed waste during lactation period (P

Access to drinking water is essential for animal welfare, but it is unclear if temporary water restriction during the night represents a welfare problem. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of various durations of nightly restriction of water on thirst in loose housed lactating sows from day 10 to 28 of lactation. A total of 48 sows were deprived of water for either 0 h (n=12; control), 3 h (n=12; 0500 to 0800 h), 6 h (n=12; 0200 to 0800 h) or 12 h (n=12; 2000 to 0800 h). Control sows consumed 22% of their water intake during the night (2000 to 0800 h), whereas water consumption during this time was reduced to 13%, 7% and 0% in sows restricted for 3, 6 and 12 h. With increased duration of nightly water restriction a reduced latency to drink (26.8, 18.0, 5.3 and 6.7 min for 0, 3, 6 and 12 h sows; P

Nutrition is one of the most important factors, influencing health status and productive performance in farm animals. Lactating sows have high nutrients requirements, especially sows nursing large litters. Energy and nutrients deficiencies have detrimental effects on sows and their progeny. Low feed intake during lactation leads to increased catabolism. Sows, consuming inadequate amounts of feed, produce less milk and lose more body weight. Litters, reared by feed-restricted sows, have also lower weight gain. Excessive weight loss during lactation may have a negative impact on subsequent reproductive performance. The aim of this paper was to present the aspects connected with and resulted from insufficient feed intake by lactating sows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The maternal behaviors reflect the health and welfare of the sows, which directly affect the economic benefit of the pig farm. Computer vision provides an effective, low-cost and non-contact method for monitoring the behavior of animal for precision farming. Under the scene of piggery, it is a challenge for 24-hour automatic recognition of lactating sow postures due to the daily illumination variations, influence of heat lamp, and adhesion between piglets and sows. This paper proposed an automatic recognition algorithm of lactating sow postures based on improved Faster R-CNN (convolutional neural network) using depth video images. To improve the recognition accuracy and satisfy the real-time need, we designed a ZF-D2R (ZF with deeper layers and 2 residual learning frameworks) network by introducing residual learning frameworks into ZF network. First, 3 convolutional layers were added in the ZF network to design ZF-D (ZF with deeper layers). Then, in ZF-D network, shortcut connections were used to form 2 residual learning frameworks. The whole network made up the ZF-D2R network. Moreover, the Center Loss was introduced to Fast R-CNN detector to construct a joint classification loss function. With the joint supervision signals of F-SoftmaxLoss and Center Loss in Fast R-CNN detector, a robust model was trained to obtain the deep feature representations with the 2 key learning objectives, which led to intra-class compactness and inter-class dispersion as much as possible. So, the joint supervision of F-SoftmaxLoss and Center Loss could reduce recognition errors caused by the similar features between different postures. By taking ZF-D2R as basic net and adding the Center Loss to Fast R-CNN detector, the improved Faster R-CNN was built. Experiments to obtain the actual data set of lactating sow posture from the depth video of sows in the 28 pens were performed. The data set included 2 451 standing images, 2 461 sitting images, 2 488 sternal recumbency images, 2 519 ventral recumbency images and 2658 lateral recumbency images. And 5 000 images were randomly chosen as the testing set. The rest of the images were used as training set. To enhance the diversity of training data, dataset augmentation including rotating and mirroring was employed. Based on the Caffe deep learning framework, our improved Faster R-CNN was trained with end-to-end approximate joint methods. By adding 2 residual learning frameworks to ZF-D, the ZF-D2R model improved the MAP (mean of average precision) by 1.28 percentage points. After introducing the Center Loss supervision signal, the MAP of the optimal model reached 93.25%, obtaining an increase of 1.3 percentage points, and the MAP of the method proposed achieved 93.25%. And APs (average precisions) of the 5 classes of postures i.e. standing, sitting, sternal recumbency, ventral recumbency and lateral recumbency were 96.73%, 94.62%, 86.28%, 89.57% and 99.04%, respectively. The MAP of our approach was 3.86 and 1.24 percentage points higher than that of Faster R-CNN based on ZF basic net and Faster RCNN based on the deeper VGG16 basic net, respectively. Our method processed images at a speed of 0.058 s per frame, 0.034 s faster than Faster R-CNN based on VGG16. Our proposed method could improve the recognition accuracy and simultaneously ensure the real-time performance. Compared with DPM (deformable part model) detector plus CNN posture classifier, the MAP of the end-to-end recognition method proposed in this paper was increased by 37.87 percentage points, and the speed was raised by 0.855 s per frame. Our method can be used for the 24-hour recognition of sow behaviors and lays the foundation for the analysis of sow dynamic behavior by video. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the current study was to investigate the effect of supplementing a mono-component xylanase to a coarsely ground lactation diet (feed fraction particle size above 2 mm was more than 17%) based on wheat, barley, and soybean meal on nutrient digestibility and performance of lactating sows. A total of 30 cross-bred (Danish Landrace õ Yorkshire) multiparous sows (parity 2 to 5) were used. Sows were fed a standard gestation diet from mating until day 108 of gestation, and then stratified for BW (295.4 ± 26.1 kg average BW) and parity to receive one of two dietary treatments (n = 15 per treatment), a lactation diet without (control diet) or with supplemented enzyme (enzyme diet). The enzyme applied was a mono-component xylanase dosed at 200 enzyme unit (FXU) per kg of feed, which corresponds to 200 g per ton of feed. The diets were fed until weaning at day 28 of lactation. On day 2 of lactation, litter size of each sow was adjusted to 14 piglets within treatment. Reproductive performance of the sows, growth of the piglets, yield and composition of sow milk, plasma metabolites and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of nutrients were measured. Supplementation of xylanase had no effect (P > 0.05) on total born and live born piglets or stillbirth rate (%) at parturition. Initial parameters on day 2 of lactation including sow BW and back fat thickness, litter size, piglet weight, and litter weight were similar (P > 0.05) between treatments. Piglet weight gain, litter weight gain, litter size, and daily milk yield did not differ (P > 0.05) between treatments. The ADFI was increased by 4.5% (P < 0.01), and BW loss during the whole lactation was reduced from -13.6 to -5.2 kg (P = 0.04) with xylanase addition when compared to control sows. The ATTD of GE (83.9 vs. 82.9, P < 0.01), DM (84.2 vs. 83.4, P < 0.01), N (83.4 vs. 81.7, P = 0.02), OM (86.5 vs. 85.7, P < 0.01) and total nonstarch polysaccharides (NSP; 59.4 vs. 56.7, P = 0.02) were all increased by xylanase supplementation. Milk composition and plasma metabolites were not affected (P > 0.05), except that plasma triglycerides content was increased by xylanase addition (0.23 vs. 0.20 mM, P = 0.04). In conclusion, supplementing a mono-component xylanase to a coarsely ground lactating diet based on wheat, barley, and soybean meal improved sow feed intake and nutrient digestibility, thereby reducing sow BW loss throughout lactation, whereas milk yield and piglet performance were not affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The behaviors of a lactating sow reflect welfare and health that affect piglet survival and growth during lactation. Computer vision has been widely used to perceive the behavior of animals for precision husbandry, which is useful to increase the productivity and reduce the disease rate. Effective and accurate segmentation of individual lactating sow is a vital step to record and analyze the lactating sow behavior automatically. However, under real pigsty conditions, it is a challenge to segment lactating sow from the background due to occlusion, uneven color on sow body surface, variations of sow size and pose, varying illumination and complex floor status. In this paper, we proposed an algorithm for lactating sow image segmentation based on fully convolutional networks (FCN). To design FCN for accurate segmentation, VGG16 was chosen as a basic network where the fully connected lays were converted to convolutional layers, and the FCN-8s skip structure was designed by combining semantic information from a deep, coarse layer with appearance information from a shallow, fine layer. We called this network FCN-8s-VGG16. The steps of our work were as follows: First, top view images were taken from 28 pens of pigs under a real pigsty circumstance and a total of 4 334 images were obtained, of which 3811 training images were selected from images of 7 pens and 523 test images were selected from images of the other 21 pens. And, all the images in training set and test set were manually labeled. Second, adaptive histogram equalization was used to improve contrast in training images. Then, the pre-processed training set was fed into FCN-8s-VGG16 to develop an optimum FCN model by the fine-tuning of the network parameters using Caffe deep learning framework on an NVIDIA GTX 980 GPU (graphics processing unit). After that, test set was put into the trained model to obtain the segmentation results. Then, to fill holes within objects and remove small objects, a post-processing was performed by using a disk structure of mathematical morphology and calculating the areas of connected regions. Finally, we compared our FCN-8s-VGG16 network architecture with different network architectures including a different skip architecture (FCN-16s based) and 2 different basic networks (CaffeNet based and AlexNet based). Besides, comparisons with other methods were also conducted, including the state-of-the-art simultaneous detection and segmentation (SDS), Graph-based and Level-set algorithm. The results on the test set showed that the algorithm achieved a complete segmentation of lactating sow by minimizing the effects of uneven color, light variations, occlusions, adhesion between sow and piglets and complex floor status, with an average accuracy of segmentation of 99.3% and a mean regional coincidence degree of 95.2% at an average speed of 0.22 second per image. However, it is hard to completely segment the sow’s head when sow’s head is downwards to floor, or close to the wall or adheres to piglets. The comparison with different network architectures showed that the mean regional coincidence degree of our proposed network architecture was higher than that of the others, and on GPU, the segmentation speeds of our FCN-8s-VGG16, FCN-16s based, CaffeNet based and AlexNet based were 0.22, 0.21, 0.09, and 0.09 second per image, respectively, which had good real-time performance. The comparison with other methods showed that our FCN-8s-VGG16 model outperformed others, which improved the mean regional coincidence degree of SDS, Graph-based and Level-set by 9.99, 31.96 and 26.44 percentage point, respectively. All of the experimental results suggest that the proposed method demonstrates a higher generalization and robustness, and provides an effective access to accurate and fast segmentation of lactating sow image under a pigsty circumstance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective was to determine the effects of increasing energy in lactation diets fed during the summer period on sow and litter performance. A total of 356 sows (PIC Camborough) were randomly assigned at entry into the farrowing room to 1 of 4 treatments within parity in a randomized complete block design with body weight and breeding day blocks. Prefarrowing caliper scores were balanced across treatments. The trial was conducted from July to September 2021 in Carthage, Illinois, with external barn minimum and maximum temperatures averaging 21-32°C. Treatments consisted of increasing levels of added fat in the lactation diet: 0, 1.67, 3.34, and 5.00% of corn oil. Diets were corn-soybean meal-based with a fixed soybean meal inclusion rate of 28.90%. Net energy (NE) concentrations of the treatment diets consisted of 2.345, 2.427, 2.509, and 2.591 Mcal NE/kg. Sow was the experimental unit and data were analyzed using generalized linear mixed models with the lmer and glmer functions of R. Increasing corn oil inclusion rates marginally (linear, P=0.086) reduced lactation average daily feed intake but did not significantly (P>0.10) impact total or average daily NE intakes. There was no evidence (P>0.05) for treatment effects on sow body weight, sow caliper score or sow backfat depth changes during lactation, percentage of removed and fall-off piglets, pre-weaning mortality, number of weaned pigs, litter weaning weight, total litter weight gain, and piglet average daily gain. In summary, increasing energy in the lactation diet by adding up to 5% corn oil during the summer period resulted in a marginal linear reduction in lactation average daily feed intake, but did not influence daily NE intake. Under the conditions of this study, no evidence for treatment effects were observed for sow or for litter performance during the nursing period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters for thermoregulation traits and the relationships with performance of Large White lactating sows reared in a tropical humid climate. The thermoregulation traits were rectal temperature (RT), cutaneous temperature (CT) and respiratory rate (RR) during lactation measured in the afternoon (1200 h) and in the morning (0700 h). The production traits were sow’s average daily feed intake (ADFI), litter BW gain (LBWg) and sow’s proportion of BW change between farrowing and weaning (BWc). Complete data included 931 lactating performance on 329 Large White sows from the INRA experimental unit in Guadeloupe (French West Indies). Random regression models using linear spline functions were used for longitudinal data (RT, CT, RR and daily feed intake). Results showed that when ignoring values at the beginning and the end of lactation, the traits studied can be treated as the same trait throughout days of lactation, with fairly constant heritability and variance. However, largest heritabilities and genetic variances were estimated in mid-lactation. Heritability estimates on average performance during lactation were low to moderate for thermoregulation traits (0.35±0.09 for RT, 0.34±0.12 for CT and 0.39±0.13 for RR). Heritability estimates for production traits were 0.26±0.08 for ADFI, 0.20±0.07 for BWc and 0.31±0.09 for LBWg. Significant genetic correlations between thermoregulation traits and production traits were only obtained for ADFI and RR (0.35±0.12). From this study it can be concluded that thermoregulation traits are heritable, indicating that there are genetic differences in heat stress tolerance in lactating Large White sows. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Previous studies suggested that supplementation of lactating sows with ß-hydroxy-ß-methylbutyrate (HMB) could improve the performance of weaning pigs, but there were little information in the muscle fiber type transformation of the offspring and the subsequent performance in pigs from weaning through finishing in response to maternal HMB consumption. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of supplementing lactating sows with HMB on skeletal muscle fiber type transformation and growth of the offspring during d 28 and 180 after birth. A total of 20 sows according to their body weight were divided into the control (CON, n = 10) or HMB groups (HMB, n = 10). Sows in the HMB group were supplemented with ß-hydroxy-ß-methylbutyrate calcium (HMB-Ca) 2 g/kg feed during d 1 to 27 of lactation. After weaning, 48 mixed sex piglets were blocked by sow treatment and fed standard diets for post-weaning, growing, finishing periods. Growth performance was recorded during d 28 to 180 after birth. Pigs were slaughtered on d 28 (n = 6/treatment) and 180 (n = 6/treatment) postnatal, and the longissimus dorsi (LD) was collected, respectively. Results: The HMB-fed sows during lactation showed increased HMB concentration (P < 0.05) in milk and LD of weaning piglets (P < 0.05). In addition, offsprings in HMB group had a higher finishing BW and lean percentage than did pigs in CON group (P < 0.05), meanwhile, compared with pigs from sows fed the CON diet, pigs from sows fed HMB diet showed higher type II muscle fiber cross-sectional area (CSA), elevated myosin heavy chain (MyHC) IIb and Sox6 mRNA, and fast-MyHC protein levels in LD (P < 0.05). Conclusions: HMB supplemented to sow diets throughout lactation increases the levels of HMB in maternal milk and skeletal muscle of pigs during d 28 after birth and promotes subsequent performance of pigs between d 28 and 180 of age by enhancing glycolytic muscle fiber transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To confirm whether dietary supplementation of delta-aminolevulinic acid (δ-ALA) to lactating sow improves iron concentration of suckling piglets, 24 gestating sows [(Yorkshire × Landrace), before 14–day of farrowing] and their litters were evaluated on growth performance, blood characteristics, and milk composition. Dietary treatments were as follows: (i) CON, corn-soybean meal based diet; (ii) CON + 0.05 % δ-ALA; and (iii) CON + 0.1 % δ-ALA. Lactating sows fed with δ-ALA had increased backfat thickness and decreased backfat thickness at weaning. Also, dietary supplementation of δ-ALA increased protein concentration in the milk of lactating sows (linear). In addition, lactating sows fed with δ-ALA had increased BW (linear), ADG (linear), iron (linear), and hemoglobin (linear) concentration in suckling piglets. Based on the results, we suggested that dietary supplementation of δ-ALA to lactating sows improved growth performance and concentration of iron and hemoglobin in blood of suckling piglets. Also, dietary supplementation of δ-ALA had positive effects on backfat thickness and protein concentration in milk of lactating sows.

Avaliou-se o efeito do resfriamento do piso da gaiola de maternidade no desempenho produtivo de porcas em lactação no período de verão. Utilizaram-se 42 porcas entre o 1º e o 5º partos, distribuídas em delineamento experimental de blocos ao acaso com 3 tratamentos e 14 repetições, considerando cada porca uma unidade experimental. Os tratamentos foram assim constituídos: piso sem resfriamento e consumo à vontade; piso com resfriamento e consumo de 5,5 kg/dia; piso com resfriamento e consumo à vontade. Os animais mantidos em gaiola com piso com resfriamento e que receberam ração à vontade apresentaram maior consumo de ração, de energia metabolizável e de lisina digestível. A mobilização de reservas corporais foi maior nas porcas mantidas sobre o piso com resfriamento com alimentação restrita, as quais apresentaram também maior intervalo desmame-estro. Os leitões das porcas mantidas sobre o piso com resfriamento tiveram maior peso ao desmame e ganho de peso diário. As porcas lactantes mantidas no piso com resfriamento apresentaram menor frequência respiratória, temperatura retal e temperaturas superficiais da nuca, do pernil e do peito. O resfriamento do piso da gaiola de maternidade favorece a dissipação de calor corporal, melhorando a condição térmica, a capacidade de consumo e o desempenho produtivo de porcas em lactação durante o verão.The effect of cooling the forrowing cage floor on production performance of lactation sows in the summer was evaluated. Forty-two sows from to the 1st to the 5th parturition were allotted to a completely randomized block experimental design with three treatments and 14 repetitions, considering each animal an experimental unit. The treatments were the following: floor not cooled and free intake; floor cooled and 5.5 kg/day of intake; floor cooled and free intake. The sows maintained in cage with cooled floor and fed ad libitum showed greater feed intake, metabolizable energy and digestible lysine. Mobilization of body reserves were greater in sows kept on the cooled floor and receiving restricted food, and they also presented longer interval between weaning and estrus. Piglets of sows kept on cooled floor showed greater weight at weaning and daily weight gain. Lactating sows kept on the cooled floor presented lower values for respiratory frequency, rectal temperature and superficial temperatures of nape, ham and breast. Cooling the farrowing cage floor favors the dissipation of body heat, improving thermal condition, the capacity of feed intake and the productive performance of lactating sows in the summer.

A total of 15 primiparous sows (Landrace × Yorkshire) and their litters were used in the current study to evaluate the efficacy of cellulase supplementation on the production performance of sows and piglets. Pigs were randomly allocated into one of three treatments with five replicates per treatment. The dietary treatments were as follows: (i) CON (corn-soybean meal-based control); (ii) EZ1 (CON+ 0.05%cellulase); and (iii) EZ2 (CON+ 0.10%cellulase). The supplementation of cellulase had no effect (P>0.05) on body weight and feed intake of lactating sows. At weaning, back fat thickness loss decreased (P = 0.04) linearly in EZ1 and EZ2 treatments. The average daily gain (ADG) of piglets increased (linear P = 0.06, quadratic P = 0.04)) during days 14 to 21 as well as at days 21 to 25 (linear P = 0.03 and quadratic P = 0.01) with the increase in the level of supplemented enzyme. Dry matter and nitrogen digestibility increased (linear P = 0.01) in lactating sows fed EZ1 and EZ2 diet compared with CON. In conclusion, it is suggested that cellulase supplementation to corn-soybean meal based diet exerts beneficial effects to sows in reducing their back fat thickness loss at weaning and also helps to improve nutrient digestibility. It also helped to improve the ADG of piglets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To confirm whether dietary supplementation of delta-aminolevulinic acid (δ-ALA) to lactating sow improves iron concentration of suckling piglets, 24 gestating sows [(Yorkshire x Landrace), before 14--day of farrowing] and their litters were evaluated on growth performance, blood characteristics, and milk composition. Dietary treatments were as follows: (i) CON, corn-soybean meal based diet; (ii) CON + 0.05 % δ-ALA; and (iii) CON + 0.1% δ-ALA. Lactating sows fed with δ-ALA had increased backfat thickness and decreased backfat thickness at weaning. Also, dietary supplementation of 5-ALA increased protein concentration in the milk of lactating sows (linear). In addition, lactating sows fed with δ-ALA had increased BW (linear), ADG (linear), iron (linear), and hemoglobin (linear) concentration in suckling piglets. Based on the results, we suggested that dietary supplementation of δ-ALA to lactating sows improved growth performance and concentration of iron and hemoglobin in blood of suckling piglets. Also, dietary supplementation of δ-ALA had positive effects on backfat thickness and protein concentration in milk of lactating sows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dietary lipid supplementation benefits the prolific and high-producing modern lactating sow. A comprehensive review of recent studies showed that lipid supplementation increases average daily energy intake, which is partitioned for lactation as indicated by greater milk fat output and improved litter growth rate. Recent compelling findings showed that addition of particular lipids during lactation improved the subsequent reproductive outcome of sows. Such benefits were related to the level of dietary essential fatty acids (EFA, linoleic acid, C18:2n-6; and a-linolenic acid, C18: 3n-3) during lactation. Lactation diets without supplemental EFA resulted in a pronounced negative balance (intake minus milk output) of linoleic (-25.49 g/d) and α-linolenic acid (-2.75 g/d); which compromised sow fertility (farrowing rate < 75% and culling rates > 25% of weaned sows). This phenomenon seems to be increasingly important with advancing sow age because of a progressive reduction of body EFA pool over successive lactations. The net effect of supplemental EFA during lactation was to create a positive EFA balance, which improved the subsequent reproduction of sows. Adequate linoleic acid intake improved the proportion of sows that farrowed in the subsequent cycle (Farrowing rate (%) = [(-1.5 ? 10-3 ? linoleic acid intake (g/d)²) + (0.53 ? linoleic acid intake (g/d)) + (45.2)]; quadratic P = 0.002, R² = 0.997, RMSE = 0.031). In addition, increasing linoleic acid intake increased the number of pigs born in the subsequent cycle (total pigs born (n) = [(9.4 ? 10-5 ? linoleic acid intake (g/d)²) + (0.04 ? linoleic acid intake (g/d)) + (10.94)]; quadratic P = 0.002, R² = 0.997, RMSE = 0.031). Supplemental α-linolenic acid resulted in a rapid return to estrus (sows bred: sows weaned = 94.2%; wean-to-estrus interval = 4.0 d) and achieved a high retention of pregnancy (sows pregnant: sows bred = 98%). Collectively, we conclude that a minimum dietary intake of 10 g/d of α-linolenic acid, simultaneous with a minimum of 125 g/d of linoleic acid should be provided to = 95% of the sows; thereby, achieving a maximum sow reproductive efficiency through multiple mechanisms that include rapid return to estrus, high maintenance of pregnancy and large subsequent litter size in mature sows, that appear to be susceptible to EFA deficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to drinking water is essential for animal welfare, but it is unclear if temporary water restriction during the night represents a welfare problem. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of various durations of nightly restriction of water on thirst in loose housed lactating sows from day 10 to 28 of lactation. A total of 48 sows were deprived of water for either 0 h (n=12; control), 3 h (n=12; 0500 to 0800 h), 6 h (n=12; 0200 to 0800 h) or 12 h (n=12; 2000 to 0800 h). Control sows consumed 22% of their water intake during the night (2000 to 0800 h), whereas water consumption during this time was reduced to 13%, 7% and 0% in sows restricted for 3, 6 and 12 h. With increased duration of nightly water restriction a reduced latency to drink (26.8, 18.0, 5.3 and 6.7 min for 0, 3, 6 and 12 h sows; P<0.001) and an increased water intake during the 1st hour after water became accessible (2.1, 3.4, 4.7 and 5.6 l for 0, 3, 6 and 12 h sows; P<0.001) was seen. During the last 30 min before water became accessible more sows deprived of water investigated (0%, 50%, 75%,and 50% of 0, 3, 6 and 12 h sows; P<0.01) or forcefully manipulated (0%, 17%, 50% and 33% of 0, 3, 6 and 12 h sows; P<0.05) the water trough, suggesting frustration and a negative experience of thirst. When all signs of imminent water access were provided, but access was delayed by 25 min, a tendency for more of the sows deprived of water for 6 and 12 h to interact forcefully with the water trough was seen (22%, 18%, 42% and 67% of 0, 3, 6 and 12 h sows; P=0.09). Duration of water restriction did not affect water consumption on a 24-h basis, nursing behaviour or performance. In conclusion, behavioural indicators of thirst increased with increasing duration of nightly water restriction in lactating sows. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Parturation is an intrinsically risky and painful process for both the sow and the piglets that can cause welfare and economic problems. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been demonstrated to partially alleviate inflammation and pain after farrowing in sows. NSAIDs effects on piglet mortality and performance show discrepancies and no previous studies have investigated the underlying mechanism. The effects of oral meloxicam treatment to sows on immunoglobulin G (IgG) transfer to piglets around farrowing were investigated. A total of 30 multiparous sows were randomly treated with either oral meloxicam or a mock administration as control group. Treatment was administered as soon as possible at the beginning of the farrowing. A total of 325 piglets were individually weighed at farrowing (day 0) and at weaning (day +21) and piglet mortality was registered during lactation. Four piglets per sow (two piglets suckling from anterior teats and two piglets suckling from posterior teats) were selected for blood sampling at day +1, day +2 and day +20 for IgG analyses. Oral meloxicam treatment to sows significantly increased weight at weaning (mean ± SE: 6563 ± 86.3 g from oral meloxicam group and 6145 ± 103.2 g from control group; P = 0.0017) and ADG (mean ± SE: 236 ± 3.4 g/day from oral meloxicam group and 217 ± 4.5 g/day from control group; P < 0.001) during lactation, but failed to reduce piglet mortality during lactation (6.7% from oral meloxicam group and 6.8% from control group; P = 0.89). IgG levels in piglets from the sows treated with oral meloxicam were significantly higher than the control group at day +1 (mean; median [95% CI] for median = 31.9; 31.7 [29.6–33.6] vs. 27.9; 26.8 [25.9–28.3] mg/ml, P = 0.0013) and day +2 (27.6; 27.0 [24.8–29.6] vs. 24.5; 24.2 [22.1–25.3] mg/ml, P = 0.01). However, at day +20, IgG level in piglet serum was not significantly affected by the treatment (7.6; 7.6 [6.7–8.4] vs. 7.1; 6.9 [6.4–7.3] mg/ml, P = 0.59). The administration of meloxicam orally at the beginning of the farrowing in multiparous sows increased the concentration of IgG in serum of piglets and enhanced their pre-weaning growth. Future research is warranted to clearly identify the proximate mechanism behind IgG effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]