• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.293-304
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• 2005

This experiment was carried out to investigate effects of honeybee venom treatment on the body weight gain, feed conversion and growth rate' in pigs. One hundred twenty nine piglets(LY) from 12 sows were allocated into two groups; honeybee venom-treated group (66 piglets from 6 sows) and non-treated control group (63 piglets from 6 sows). Natural honeybee venom was administrated at 0, 3, 14, 30, and 74 days after birth. The acupoints were Hai-men(ST-25), Du-kou(CV-8) and liao-chao(GV-I) points at 0 day, the regions of castration and tail ampution at 3 days, liao-chao(GV-1) and Bai-hui(GV-20) points at 14(weaning), 30(move into piglet stall) and 74(move into grower stall) days after birth. Control group was injected 1 ml of saline to the same site. Average body weight at 150 days after birth was 98.44 kg in bee venom treated group and 86.24 kg in control group, respectively. Average body weight of treated group was significantly increased by 14.15%(P < 0.0001). Average daily gain of bee venom treated group and control group were 649 g and 569 g, respectively, increased by 14.06%(P< 0.0001). Feed conversion of the treated group was 2.21 and control group was 2.49, increased by 11.25% in control group(P < 0.001). Survival rate at weaning was 95.5 % in treated group and 92.0% in control group, at growing(74 days after birth) was 92.4% in treated group and 85.7% in control group and survival rate at finishing(l50 days after birth) was 89.5 % and 79.4 %, respectively. Collecting together, the results in this study showed that growth performance and feed conversion were increased by treatment of natural honeybee venom to pigs. These results suggested that the treatment of bee venom could be used effectively for the increase productivity of livestock industry.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.1394-1399
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• 2001

Influence of pre-weaning nutrition on post-weaning gain was assesses under intensive feeding in Malpura lambs. Thirty six Malpura (15 days old) lambs divided in to 3 equal groups were maintained on high (G1), medium (G2) and low (G3) energy and protein containing creep mixture with free suckling and ad libitum roughage (pala leaves: Ziziphus nummularia) up to 90 days of age. The lambs during post-weaning phase were fed on a 40:60 roughage and concentrate based composite diet to assess their post-weaning growth response. Total dry matter intake in pre-weaning phase was higher (p<0.01) in G3 than G2 and G1 while feed conversion efficiency was better in G1 than G2 and G3. The birth weight, 15 days body weight and weaning weight were however similar in the three groups. The finishing body weight, total body weight gain and average daily gain during post-weaning phase were higher (p<0.01) in G3 than in G1 and G2. The lambs in G3 consumed more (p<0.01) dry matter during post-weaning phase along with better feed conversion efficiency than other two groups. However, the DCP intake/kg body weight gain was higher in G1 than G2 and G3. Digestibility of DM, OM, CP, NDF, ADF and energy were similar among the three groups during post-weaning phase. Percent nitrogen retention as nitrogen intake was higher (p<0.01) in G3 (71.1%) than G1 (67.7%) and G2 (69.7%) during the post-weaning phase of study. The G1, G2 and G3 lambs in post-weaning phase consumed 8.1, 7.7 and 8.1 g DCP and 246.8, 227.2 and 246.1 kcal $DE/kg\;W^{0.75}/d$ and had 84.4, 80.0 and 111.1 g average daily gain, respectively. It is concluded that the lambs fed on low energy and protein containing creep mixture in pre-weaning phase showed improvement in growth during post-weaning phase under optimum feeding regime.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.1270-1277
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• 2017

Objective: The present study aimed to determine the impact of ewe body condition score (BCS) (over a range of 2.0 to 3.0) and nutritional treatments (consisting of differing herbage masses) during very late pregnancy and lactation and their potential interaction on the performance of twin-bearing ewes and their lambs to weaning. Methods: On day 142 of pregnancy, twin-bearing ewes with a BCS of 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0 were allocated to a "Moderate' or 'Unrestricted' nutritional treatment until day 95 of lactation (weaning). The nutritional treatments aimed to achieve average herbage masses of 1,200 to 1,300 kg dry matter (DM)/ha (Moderate) and 1,500 to 1,800 kg DM/ha (Unrestricted). Results: There were no three-way interactions between ewe BCS group, nutritional treatment and time for any ewe or lamb parameter. The nutritional treatments had no effect (p>0.05) on lamb birth or weaning weight. Lambs born to Moderate ewes had greater survival and total litter weight at weaning (p<0.05). Regardless of BCS group, Unrestricted treatment ewes had greater body condition and back-fat depth at weaning than Moderate treatment ewes (p<0.05). Ewes of BCS 2.0 group reared lighter lambs to weaning (p<0.05) and tended to have a lower total litter weight (p = 0.06) than BCS 3.0 group ewes. Conclusion: This study suggests farmers should aim to have all ewes with a BCS of 2.5 or 3 in late pregnancy for optimal lamb weaning performance. Furthermore, there is no benefit to lamb production of offering ewes pasture masses >1,200 kg DM/ha during very late pregnancy and lactation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.1484-1490
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• 2004

Mitochondrial DNA haplotypes from the displacement-loop (D-loop) region (436 bp) were genotyped and sequenced in Japanese Black beef cattle raised in the same herd. Correlation coefficients between mitochondrial DNA haplotypes, maternal lineage, birth weight, preweaning average daily gain, weaning weight, post weaning average daily gain and yearling weight were computed. The objective was to study the relationship between maternal and postnatal growth traits and to investigate if postnatal growth of calves to yearling age could be accurately predicted from mitochondrial DNA haplotypes. Results of the phylogenetic analysis revealed 17 maternal lineages and four mitochondrial DNA haplotypes. There were strong, positive and highly significant (p<0.001) correlations among maternal traits ranging from 0.52 to 0.98. Similarly, among postnatal growth traits, most of the correlations were also strong, positive and highly significant (p<0.001); the highest correlation of 0.94 was between preweaning average daily gain and weaning weight. However, correlations between mitochondrial DNA haplotypes and postnatal growth traits were very low, mostly negative and non-significant (p>0.05) ranging from -0.05 to 0.1. Prediction of postnatal growth from mitochondrial DNA yielded very low $R^{2}$ values ranging from 0.002 to 0.019. It was concluded that mitochondrial DNA polymorphism has no significant association with postnatal growth from birth to yearling age, and by implication, nuclear rather than cytoplasmic DNA, accounts for most of the genetic variation observed in postnatal growth of Japanese Black cattle. Therefore, mitochondrial DNA genotyping at an early age has no bearing on the accurate prediction of the future growth performance of calves.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.855-863
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• 1999

This study was performed to investigate the effect of dietary protein level throughout gestation and lactation on milk composition and on postnatal growth in infants, using rats as an animal model. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were provided with either high(25% ISP(Isolated Soy Protein)diet) or low protein diet(10% ISP diet) throughout gestation and lactation. Milk samples were taken for analysis from the lactating rats at days of 7, 14, 21, of lactation. Dams and some pups were killed after 4 weeks from parturtion (Experiment 1). Pups from dams of each diet groups were randomly selected and reared with 25% or 10% ISP diet for 4 more weeks (Experiment 2). In experiment 1, maternal protein intake and body weight gain throughout gestation and lactation was higher in 25% ISP group. Serum protein, Ca, Fe, Zn, K concentrations were significantly higher in 25% ISP group. There was no difference in birth weight between two groups, however the mean body weight at 4 weeks postpartum were significantly higher in 25% ISP group. Serum profiles of pups at weaning were similar to that of dams. Milk compositions were changed during lactation processes and were affected by dietary protein level. Lactose and Ca, Cu, Fe concentrations in milk were higher in 25% ISP group, whereas, lipid, triglyceride were higher in 10% ISP group. In experiment 2, food intake was higher in milk were higher in 25% ISP group but was unaffected by pup's dietary protein level after weaning. The weights of liver and kidney were affected by maternal protein intake. The weight of intestine was affected by pup's dietary protein level after weaning. The weight of femur and scapula were affected by maternal protein intake. There were no differences between four groups in serum profiles. Therefore, as mentioned above, it seemed that the effect of maternal protein malnutrition to fetus was able to be overcome to some extent by high protein diet intake after weaning. In conclusion, 1) Dietary protein level throughout gestation and lactation affected both nutritional status of dams and pups and milk composition: 25% ISP groups supported better nutritional status than 10% ISP group 2) It seemed that effect of dietary protein level after weaning on pups was able to be overcome the influence of maternal diet in fetus to some extent.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.1350-1356
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• 2023

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate polymorphisms of the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) and insulin like growth factor 2 (IGF2) genes and to evaluate the growth traits affected by such polymorphisms in Thai native (Kradon) pigs. Methods: Blood samples and productive data from 91 Kradon pigs were collected. DNA was extracted and quantified, the IGF2 and MC4R genes were amplified, and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) produces were digested using the PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique. Genotyping was performed, and the association between genotypes and growth traits on the birth and weaning weights were evaluated. Results: The IGF2 intron7 g.162G>C variations in Kradon pigs were found in three genotypes: i) GG, ii) GC, and iii) CC. The GG genotype frequency was the highest followed by the GC and CC genotypes. The frequencies of the G and C alleles were 0.703 and 0.297, respectively. The MC4R genotype was found in only one genotype (GG). The IGF2 gene pattern was not associated with birth weight traits, whereas the IGF2 gene pattern was related to the weaning weight trait in Kradon pigs. Pigs with the CC and GC genotypes had higher weaning weights than ones with the GG genotype (p<0.001). Conclusion: Thai native Kradon pigs with the CC and GC genotypes of the IGF2 gene have higher weaning weights than pigs with the GG genotype.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.1601-1606
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• 2011

32 sows (Landrace${\times}$Yorkshire) and their litters were used to evaluate the effects of varying creep feed duration on pre-weaning, post-weaning performance of piglets and sows. Sows were randomly assigned with 1, 2 or 3+ parities into 1 of 4 treatments. Creep feeding was initiated at day 5, 10 and 15 from birth for treatment 1 (TRT1), 2 (TRT2) and (TRT3), respectively, with a control group provided no creep feed. In this study, TRT1 and TRT2 diets had reduced (p<0.05) the post-weaning diarrhea scores in piglets and the weaning-to-estrus interval and cortisol concentration in sows at weaning time compared with other treatments. Dietary TRT1 led to a higher (p<0.05) epinephrine and norepinephrine concentrations than other treatments. No differences (p>0.05) were noted in suckling, sleeping, fighting frequency and mortality in piglet and eating, standing times, backfat and body weight loss in sows. In conclusion, creep feed initiated from day 5 and 10 reduce diarrhea scores in piglets and benefit the estrus interval in sows compared with those initiated from day 15 and no-creep feeding diets, indicating creep feeding could improve the pigs and sows performance, especially those initiated from day 5 and 10.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.365-369
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• 2012

Fast recovery of feed intake and milk production are very important in the management of lactating sows because they are directly related to sow and litter performance. It is also known that parity is one of factors affecting feed intake and milk yield during lactation. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate effects of different parities on productive performance of lactating sows fed diets containing different levels of DDGS. A total of 245 sows were divided into 3 parity groups of 1 to 2, 3 to 5, and over 5 parities. Within each parity group, sows were allottedto 1 of 4 dietary treatments that were prepared by inclusion of 0, 10, 20, and 30% DDGS in lactation diets. Diets were fed to sows during lactation. Sows with parities 1-2 had lower (p < 0.05) initial sow body weight, sow feed intake, sow weight change, and sow backfat change during lactation than sows with parities 3-5 as well as parities over 5. However, sows with parities over 5 had lower (p < 0.05) litter size at weaning, litter birth weight, litter weaning weight, and piglet average daily gain and higher pre-weaning mortality than sows with parities 1-2 as well as parities 3-5. In conclusion, parity influences productive performance of lactating sows.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.1578-1583
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• 2023

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of vitamin K (VK) supplementation on reproductive performance and bone metabolism-related biochemical markers in sows. Methods: Twenty-four Large White×Landrace sows (mean parity 4.04) were randomly assigned to two dietary treatments (NC diet, a basal diet with 0.5 mg/kg of VK₃; VK diet, a basal diet with 5 mg/kg of VK₃) with twelve replicates per treatment and one sow per replicate according to parity. The experiment started on day 107 of gestation and lasted until day 21 of lactation (weaning). Results: We observed that there were no differences (p>0.05) in average daily feed intake, backfat loss of sows, live piglet number at birth and weaning, average birth weight, average weaning weight, and average daily gain of piglets between two treatments. The apparent total tract digestibility of phosphorus was increased (p<0.05) in VK sows compared with NC sows. The serum bone alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin, type I procollagen amino-terminal peptide, and type I procollagen carboxyl-terminal peptide on day of farrowing were higher (p<0.05) in VK sows than in NC sows. The serum phosphorus, parathyroid hormone, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha on day of weaning were lower (p<0.05) in VK sows compared with NC sows. Conclusion: Therefore, the overall results suggested that increasing dietary VK₃ (0.5 to 5 mg/kg) during lactation improved the apparent total tract digestibility of phosphorus and serum bone metabolism biochemical markers in sows.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.432-442
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to analyse the effects of light colour on rabbit reproductive performance and the expression of key follicular development genes. Rabbits (n = 1,068, 5 months old, 3.6-4.4 kg live body weight) were divided randomly into four groups, housed individually in wire mesh cages and exposed to red, green, blue, and white light-emitting diode (LED) light (control). The lighting schedule was 16 L : 8 D-15 d / 150 lx / 6:00 am-22:00 pm (3 d preartificial insemination to 12 d postartificial insemination). Red light and white light affected the conception rate and kindling rate and increased the total litter size at birth (p < 0.05). The effects of red light on litter size at weaning, litter weight at weaning, and individual weight at weaning increased compared with the green and blue groups. The effects of red light on live litter size at birth were increased compared with those in the blue group (p < 0.05). Compared to white light, green and blue light reduced the number of secondary follicles (p < 0.05). Compared to red light, green and blue light reduced the number of tertiary follicles (p < 0.05). Compared with white light, red LED light resulted in greater ovarian follicle stimulating hormone receptor and luteinizing hormone receptor mRNA expression (p < 0.05). Compared with green and blue LED light, red LED light resulted in greater B-cell lymphom-2 mRNA expression (p < 0.05). Compared with green LED light, red LED light inhibited FOXO1 mRNA expression in rabbit ovaries (p < 0.05). Red light can affect the reproductive performance of female rabbits and the expression of key genes for follicular development.