Researchers Look to Vitamin Supplementation to Displace Antibiotics and Zinc Oxide in Addressing Neonatal and Post-Weaning Diarrhea

Researchers with Agriculture And Agri-Food Canada are evaluating the potential of using supplemental vitamins administered to the sow to displace the use of antibiotics and zinc oxide in addressing neonatal diarrhea and post-weaning diarrhea in her piglets. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, in collaboration with CDPQ and the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, is examining the effects of providing supplemental dietary vitamins to the sow during gestation in combination with a commercial vaccine to stimulate production of maternal antibodies that can be passed to her piglets through her colostrum to provide immunity to neonatal diarrhea or post-weaning diarrhea.

Hannah Burlet, a graduate student with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, explains the pressure to find alternative methods to protect piglets from diarrhea is mounting.

Quote-Hannah Burlet-Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada-Western College of Veterinary Medicine:

Vitamins were administered in the form of a standard vitamin premix distributed in feed, with the diets applied from just after artificial insemination until farrowing.We used two diets, the first a control diet based on NRC 2012 recommendations and the second, a high vitamin diet based on an average 50 percent increase of industry standard vitamin levels based on a 2016 study by Flohr et al.

Along with the vitamins, we administered appropriate doses of a commercial vaccine to stimulate maternal production of antibodies.This protocol was applied over two sequential gestational cycles to determine if there is any additive effect.We will compare antibody levels from blood serum at breeding, before and after vaccination, from colostrum and from piglet blood serum.We will also compare some performance measures like backfat thickness, piglets born alive, piglets weaned, and piglet weight gain to see if there is any difference on the whole animal level.

Burlet says she is currently analysing the sow and piglet performance data and she expects the main portion of the lab work to be competed by October.She plans to present findings during the upcoming Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium in November.