Avaliação de dietas para leitões na fase de maternidade: desempenho, frequência de diarreia e avaliação econômica

Abstract

Swine farming has been showing great technical progress in the last decade, due, in particular, to the great advances attributed to genetics. A higher number of piglets produced per sow is observed, which increases nutritional, sanitary and management imbalances in the maternity phase. This increase reduces the uniformity of litters, increasing the frequency of low-weight piglets, which may lead to an increase in colostrum competition among others. In view of this and in order to increase the digestive enzymes and turnover of intestinal villi, feeding the piglets already in the maternity phase has become a reality. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the performance, frequency of diarrhea and economic analysis of piglets, during the maternity phase, fed with different diets. Three hundred and thirty-eight (338) piglets were distributed in a completely randomized design, in two (2) treatments (high cost diet and low cost diet) and thirteen (13) repetitions each. Each repetition consisted of thirteen (13) piglets, housed together with their respective mothers. The piglets received the diets and water ad libitum of the seven (7) days of age at weaning (28 days). The data were submitted to analysis of variance, and the means were compared by the Tukey test at 5% probability. There was no significant difference (p> 0.05) for the performance variables studied. For the evaluation of total dietary costs, the results differed statistically (p <0.05). In this way, it is noticed that the quality of feed sources, used in maternity diets, mainly in relation to the digestibility of the same by the piglets, is a factor of paramount importance in the choice of which diet to use.