Table 4.
Effect of dietary treatment on blood plasma parameter concentrations
| Replicate | Diet | P | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parameter | Summer1 | Spring2 | A3 | GLN4 | NA5 | SE | D6 | R7 | D x R |
| Sentinel pigs8 | |||||||||
| Pretransport9 | |||||||||
| TNF-α10, pg/mL | 19.11 | 27.11 | – | – | – | 10.21 | – | – | – |
| Cortisol, μg/L | 25.24 | 54.80 | – | – | – | 13.91 | – | – | – |
| post-transport11 | |||||||||
| TNF-α, pg/mL | 3.27 | 12.58 | – | – | – | 10.24 | – | – | – |
| Cortisol, μg/L | 140.64 | 34.19 | – | – | – | 19.60 | – | – | – |
| 24 h post-transport12 | |||||||||
| TNF-α, pg/mL | 32.53 | 34.41 | – | – | – | 11.38 | – | – | – |
| Cortisol, μg/L | 37.01 | 19.06 | – | – | – | 9.96 | – | – | – |
| Experimental data13 | |||||||||
| Day 13 | |||||||||
| TNF-α, pg/mL | 47.88 | 46.02 | 36.73a | 40.92a | 63.19b | 6.94 | 0.02 | 0.82 | 0.14 |
| Cortisol, μg/L | 28.10 | 25.18 | 26.80 | 26.39 | 26.72 | 2.25 | 0.99 | 0.25 | 0.95 |
| Day 33 | |||||||||
| TNF-α, pg/ml | 45.33 | 77.32 | 62.03 | 54.78 | 67.16 | 5.84 | 0.31 | 0.01 | 0.92 |
| Cortisol, μg/L | 46.79 | 53.95 | 52.68 | 48.46 | 49.96 | 4.55 | 0.78 | 0.15 | 0.40 |
1Pigs weaned and transported for 12 h during July 2016.
2Pigs weaned and transported for 12 h during April 2017.
3Pigs provided dietary antibiotics [chlortetracycline (441 ppm) + tiamulin (38.6 ppm)] for 14 d postweaning and transport and then fed common antibiotic-free diets.
4Pigs provided 0.20% l-glutamine for 14 d postweaning and transport and then fed common antibiotic-free diets.
5Pigs provided no dietary antibiotics for 14 d postweaning and transport and then fed common antibiotic-free diets.
6Dietary treatment.
7Replicate.
8Six sentinel pigs per replicate was selected for blood parameter descriptive data.
9Blood samples were collected immediately prior to transport.
10Tumor necrosis factor alpha.
11Blood samples were collected immediately post-transport.
12Blood samples were collected 24 h post-transport.
13A total of 10 pens were used per dietary treatment per replicate with 1 pig per pen closest to the pen mean BW was selected for plasma cortisol concentration analysis.
a,bLetters indicate significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) within a row and dietary treatment.