Skip to main content
. 2012 Mar 27;3(1):11. doi: 10.1186/2049-1891-3-11

Table 6.

The effect of dietary ME level on litter growth (Exp. 1)

Item Parity No. ME level, Mcal/kg P-value
3.06 3.16 3.20 3.25 3.30 3.40 Mean13 SEM Treat Linear Quadratic
Initial litter weight, kg 1 36 13.98 13.35 13.10 13.44 13.92 13.37 13.54x 0.35 0.45 -- --
2 36 14.34 14.76 14.84 15.34 15.79 15.47 15.12y 0.81 0.86 -- --
3+ 113 16.43 16.81 16.51 16.75 16.46 16.25 16.53z 0.43 0.95 -- --
Overall2 185 15.68 15.94 15.65 15.98 15.96 15.69 15.82 0.38 0.91 -- --
Litter weight at weaning, kg1 1 36 72.57 74.63 72.99 73.64 73.35 73.40 73.35x 1.89 0.83 0.64 0.18
2 36 76.69 76.65 76.63 76.58 74.93 74.74 75.94x 2.25 0.68 0.86 0.71
3+ 113 77.33a 77.94ad 82.66b 80.64c 79.24cd 78.63ad 79.39y 1.43 < 0.01 0.97 < 0.01
Overall2 185 76.42a 77.19a 80.06b 78.83b 77.35a 76.95a 77.80 1.14 < 0.01 0.91 0.07
Litter weight gain, kg/d1 1 36 2.08 2.16 2.10 2.12 2.11 2.11 2.11x 0.04 0.82 0.67 0.46
2 36 2.17 2.18 2.17 2.17 2.12 2.10 2.15x 0.05 0.66 0.56 0.41
3+ 113 2.16a 2.18ad 2.35b 2.28c 2.23cd 2.21ad 2.23y 0.03 < 0.01 0.29 < 0.01
Overall2 185 2.15a 2.18a 2.28b 2.23b 2.18a 2.17a 2.20 0.02 < 0.01 0.69 < 0.01

1Initial litter weight, number of piglets suckling and lactation length were used as covariate in the analysis

2Parity effect was included in the model

3Parity effect; treatment effect was included in the model

a, b, c, dWithin a row, values with no common superscript differ significantly (P < 0.05)

x, y, zWithin a column, values with no common superscript differ significantly (P < 0.05)