Sow performance in response to natural betaine fed during lactation and post-weaning during summer and non-summer months

S M Mendoza; R D Boyd; J Remus; P Wilcock; G E Martinez; E van Heugten

doi:10.1186/s40104-020-00471-0

Sow performance in response to natural betaine fed during lactation and post-weaning during summer and non-summer months

J Anim Sci Biotechnol. 2020 Jul 2:11:69. doi: 10.1186/s40104-020-00471-0. eCollection 2020.

Authors

S M Mendoza¹, R D Boyd^{1

2}, J Remus³, P Wilcock⁴, G E Martinez¹, E van Heugten¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Animal Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 USA.
² The Hanor Company Inc., Franklin, KY 42134 USA.
³ DuPont Animal Nutrition, Wilmington, DE 19803 USA.
⁴ AB Vista, Marlborough, UK.

Abstract

Background: Two studies were conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary natural betaine on sow reproductive performance during summer (Exp. 1) and non-summer months (Exp. 2). Treatments were designed as a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement with factors including dietary betaine (0 or 0.2%) and period of supplementation (lactation or post-weaning until 35 days post-insemination). In Exp. 1, 322 and 327 sows and in Exp. 2, 300 and 327 sows representing young (parity 1 and 2) and mature (parity 3 to 6) sows, respectively, were used.

Results: In Exp. 1, supplementation of betaine during lactation increased sow body weight losses (- 11.95 vs. -14.63 kg; P = 0.024), reduced feed intake (4.12 vs. 4.28 kg/d; P = 0.052), and tended to reduce percentage of no-value pigs (P = 0.071). Betaine fed post-weaning reduced weaning-to-estrus interval (5.75 vs. 6.68 days; P = 0.054) and farrowing rate (86.74% vs. 91.36%; P = 0.060), regardless of parity group. Post-hoc analysis with sows clustered into 3 parity groups (1, 2 and 3, and 4+) indicated that betaine fed in lactation to parity 4+ sows (P = 0.026) and betaine fed post-weaning to parity 1 sows increased the number of pigs born in the subsequent cycle (P ≤ 0.05). In Exp. 2, betaine fed during lactation tended to reduce the weaning-to-estrus interval (6.64 vs. 7.50 days; P = 0.077) and farrowing rate (88.23% vs. 83.54%; P = 0.089), regardless of parity group. Feeding betaine post-weaning reduced number of pigs born (13.00 vs. 13.64; P = 0.04) and pigs born alive (12.30 vs. 12.82; P = 0.075), regardless of parity group.

Conclusions: Using 0.2% betaine during the non-summer months did not benefit sow performance. During the summer, betaine supplementation in lactation increased subsequent litter size in parity 4+ sows. Betaine fed during the post-weaning period reduced the wean-to-estrus interval and farrowing rate, increased total number of pigs born for parity 1 sows and reduced total number of pigs born to parity 4+ sows. Further research is needed to determine if the detrimental effects on feed intake and farrowing rate may be correlated and depend on dietary betaine level.

Keywords: Betaine; Lactation; Post-weaning; Reproduction; Sows.