Can we increase the birth weight of piglets through feeding interventions in sows in early

The increased litter size in today’s hyper-prolific sows is resulting in the birth of small and/or underdeveloped piglets, which have a higher mortality and slower growth rate, says Anja Varmløse Strathe, assistant professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

It takes a lot of work by farmers to make these smaller piglets survive and grow, she continued.

Varmløse Strathe leads a project, Feed4Life, where the focus is on gaining insights into fetal development in hyper-prolific sows and on investigating whether different feeding interventions in early to mid-gestation can affect fetal development and increase the birthweight of piglets.

At FeedNavigator’s Young Animal Nutrition​​ (YAN20) conference, 3-4 March 2020, in Amsterdam, she will provide the audience with the latest results of trial work involving gestating sows.

As regards fetal development in hyper-prolific sows, she will talk about how variation within the litter can be detected very early in gestation.

She will also discuss the impact of feed additives in gestational diets from early to mid-gestation and how this affects the fetal development and birth characteristics of piglets.

Varmløse Strathe has been working in the area of sow nutrition research for the last ten years, both in Denmark and the US.

As well as the theme of maternal diets and embryonic nutrition, YAN20 will explore topics related to gut health and immunity, feed composition, regulatory constraints on the sector and optimal housing and feeding technology to support the growth of young animals.

Other speakers at our conference include Lisbeth Shooter from SEGES in Denmark, who has been evaluating alternatives to zinc oxide in piglet diets, Ad van Wesel from ForFarmers on how the company met EU copper regulation head on through innovation, Dr Ivan Rychlik, who is working on next generation probiotics for broiler chicks and piglets, and is based at the Veterinary Research Institute in Brno, Czech Republic plus many, many more.