Table 6.

Effect of incremental dietary energy density during late gestation and lactation on the number of piglet’s cross-fostered, piglet mortality, litter size, litter ADG, litter weight at weaning, individual piglet body weight, and piglet ADG to weaning

Dietary treatment	LL	L	H	HH
MJ DE/kg	13.8	14.5	15.2	15.9	SEM	P-value1
Number of sows	25	25	25	25
Number of piglets born alive	15.3	13.9	14.3	13.5	0.61	0.25
Piglets CF off2	2.4	2.7	2.0	3.1	0.37	0.23
Piglets CF on2	2.1	3.1	2.7	3.3	0.65	0.25
Piglet mortality3	2.2	2.0	1.9	2.2	0.35	0.91
Litter size4
Day 1	14.4	13.5	14.3	13.2	0.60	0.41
Day 6	13.2	12.7	13.3	12.3	0.35	0.14
Day 14	13.0	12.5	13.2	12.2	0.31	0.04
Day 265	12.7a,b	12.0a	13.2b	11.6a	0.33	<0.01
Litter ADG, kg/d6	2.8A	2.5B	2.8A	2.7A,B	0.10	0.05
Litter weaned, kg1	92.3a	81.6b	93.5a	85.9a,b	2.95	0.01
Piglet BW, kg
Day 1	1.51	1.48	1.51	1.48	0.049	0.95
Day 6	2.5	2.3	2.3	2.3	0.08	0.44
Day 14	4.2	3.9	3.9	4.1	0.14	0.43
Day 265	7.3	6.9	7.0	7.4	0.17	0.11
Piglet ADG, g/d1,7
Days 0 to 1	63	58	69	66	8.6	0.80
Days 1 to 6	182	163	160	175	7.4	0.13
Days 6 to 14	242	217	232	246	9.6	0.12
Days 14 to 26	226	215	219	227	9.2	0.74
Days 0 to 26	225A,B	209A	215A,B	230B	6.2	0.06

ADG, average daily gain; CF, cross fostered.

¹Treatements with different superscript letters within a row are considered significantly different at P < 0.05 and as tendencies at P > 0.05 but less than P < 0.10. Sow litter size on day 1 of lactation was used as a covariate for the analysis of piglet ADG and litter weight between days 1 and 26 of lactation.

²Litter size was standardized within the first 24 h after parturition where possible.

³Piglet mortality = number of piglets that died between days 0 and 26 of lactation.

⁴Litter size = number of suckling piglets in the litter at each weighing.

⁵Day 26 = average age at weaning.

⁶Litter ADG = litter ADG between days 1 and 26 of lactation.

⁷Piglet ADG is calculated on the basis of individual piglet BW at specific time points during the suckling period/number of days between each time point.