Effects of creep feeding on the adaptation to nursery's challenges

• Grant number: 22/05304-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2022
• End date: August 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Cesar Augusto Pospissil Garbossa
• Grantee: Fernanda Mariane dos Santos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Modern pig production is a result of years of genetic improvement, in which the high rate of weaners per sow per year has been a highly targeted index in order to achieve better levels of productivity. To guarantee this productivity, producers have been looking for genetics with greater prolificity and good lactational performance. However, the early transfer to the nursery generates a series of health problems for the piglets, especially nutritional issues, which leads to a series of productive and zootechnical losses, and, consequently, lower profitability for the farm. Weaning is one of the most critical periods in a piglet's life, being associated with a series of stress factors and high mortality rates. Thus, swine farmers are increasingly looking for strategies that minimize weaning stress, such as creep feeding. The present study aims to evaluate the effects of creed feeding management on the challenges associated with the transfer to the nursery phase, from the comparative performance analysis between animals that ate the creep, in relation to individuals that did not ingest it. In addition, an economic analysis of the application of the diet will be carried out. The analysis of positive or negative animals for creep ingestion will be performed by rectal swab, after the addition of a ferric oxide marker to the diet. The productive performance will be evaluated through individual piglets weighing, and the economic viability through the analysis of the investment return (ROI), considering the net gain based on the amount invested. Statistical analyzes will be performed using SAS software version 9.4 (SAS / STAT, SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). All data will be tested for normality with the Shapiro-Wilk test. Variables that did not follow a normal distribution will be transformed using the SAS RANK procedure (SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC). The PROC RANK instruction with the NORMAL option will be used to produce a normalized transformed variable. The treatment effect will be analyzed by ANOVA using the SAS MIXED procedure (SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC). All data will be described as LSMEANS and the largest standard error (SEM) for each variable will be presented. The analysis will be considered significant when Pd0.05 and a tendency for P values between 0.05 and 0.10. The means will be compared by the t test.(AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

FERNANDA MARIANE DOS SANTOS; GUILHERME C. GOTTSCHALL; LAYA K.S. ALVES; CESAR AUGUSTO P. GARBOSSA. Relationship between creep feeding intake and piglet’s performance in the nursery phase. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, v. 95, 2024-01-05. (20/11016-9, 21/08217-5, 22/05304-7)