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Lysine Supplementation at the End of Gestation in First-Parity Sows

Escrito por: Chantal Farmer

STIMULATING MAMMARY DEVELOPMENT IN FIRST-PARITY SOWS WITH LYSINE SUPPLEMENTATION AT THE END OF GESTATION

The swine sector faces the challenge that current sows do not produce enough milk to support optimal growth of their litters. This issue is especially critical today considering the advances made in genetic selection to produce larger litters.Although sow milk production has increased over the years, this has been more than offset by the increase in the number of live piglets at birth, making it imperative to develop strategies to increase the amount of milk available for nursing piglets.

 

Mammary development is a key factor for milk production, and yet the nutritional requirements to optimize it during crucial periods have not been established. In this context, one nutrient of interest is lysine, as it is the main limiting amino acid in most swine diets.

Lysine is most important at the end of gestation when most fetal and mammary growth occurs.

At the Sherbrooke Research and Development Centre (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Sherbrooke Research and Development Centre), two projects were carried out to determine the impact of a 40% increase in lysine intake between days 90 and 110 of gestation on the mammary development of first-parity and multiparous sows.

Increasing milk-synthesizing tissue to improve lactation performance

The number of mammary cells present at the start of lactation is a key factor determining a sow’s milk production potential (Figure 1). Therefore, any measures aimed at increasing the number of mammary epithelial cells will have beneficial effects on lactation performance.However, rapid mammary development can only be stimulated through nutritional or other strategies during periods when it is already occurring.

These periods of rapid mammary development occur at three distinct times in a sow’s life:

  1. Between 90 days of age and puberty.
  2. From 90 days of gestation until farrowing.
  3. Throughout lactation.
Nutrition at the end of gestation is very promising for increasing the number of milk-synthesizing cells before lactation begins.

Figure 1. Increased sow milk production through greater mammary development (Created with BioRender.com).

Increasing lysine intake at the end of gestation could mean more milk

To evaluate the impact of feeding 40% more lysine at the end of gestation, first-parity sows were fed 2.65 kg of a conventional corn and soybean meal diet that provided:

A) 18.6 g of standardized ileal digestible (SID) lysine/day (according to estimated needs).

B)  26 g of SID lysine/day (↑40%) (additional lysine was provided by adding more soybean meal to the diet).

Both diets had the same amount of energy and were administered between days 90 and 110 of gestation, at which point the young sows were slaughtered to obtain mammary tissue for dissection and composition analysis.

Administering 26 g of SID lysine daily increased the weight of milk-synthesizing mammary tissue (parenchyma) by 44%, while the weight of the external fat layer of the mammary tissue (extra-parenchyma) was not altered.

Although the composition of the mammary parenchyma was not affected by the dietary treatment, the total amounts of each tissue component, such as protein and fat, were greater due to the increased tissue weight.

 

These results indicate that increasing lysine intake by 40% in first-parity sows at the end of gestation improves the development of their milk-synthesizing tissue.

However, it is important to note that the beneficial effects of adding soybean meal could be due to its higher protein content or higher concentrations of amino acids other than lysine.

→ Therefore, it can be concluded that increasing the amount of soybean meal to provide 40% more lysine to young sows during the last third of gestation could be beneficial for milk production in the subsequent lactation.

More lysine at the end of gestation does not translate to more milk in multiparous sows

When a similar trial was conducted with multiparous sows (parities 2 and 3), the results were different.

Between days 90 and 110 of gestation, multiparous sows were fed 2.6 kg of a conventional corn and soybean meal diet that provided:

A) 14.8 g of SID lysine/day (according to estimated needs).

B) 20.8 g of SID lysine/day (↑40%) (additional lysine was provided by adding more soybean meal to the diet).

Unlike the trial with first-parity sows, analysis of the mammary tissue on day 110 of gestation showed no differences in the amount or composition of the milk-synthesizing tissue.

→ This indicates that parity affects the response to supplementary lysine, with beneficial effects on mammary development observed in first-parity sows but not in multiparous sows.
It would be worthwhile to use a two-phase feeding strategy at the end of gestation for first-parity sows, but not for multiparous sows.

 

Current recommendations are not sufficient for first-parity sows

The results of these studies highlight that current recommendations for including lysine at the end of gestation in young sows’ diets are underestimated but are adequate for multiparous sows’ diets.

By providing 40% more lysine in the diet, with the addition of soybean meal, producers can effectively stimulate the development of milk-synthesizing tissue during the first gestation, leading to better milk production.

You may also like to read: “Enhancing Sow and Piglet Health with 25-OH-D3 Supplementation”

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