Table 8.

Effect of sows’ intake of micelle silymarin from the 109th prenatal day to the 21st postnatal day on the concentrations of cortisol, prolactin, and oxytocin in sow serum¹

Items	Micelle silymarin (% of diet)				CON vs. Micelle Silymarin	P-value
	0	0.05	0.1	0.2		Linear	Quadratic
On day 109 of gestation
Cortisol, ng/mL	33.26 ± 0.78	29.56 ± 1.13	35.19 ± 1.39	34.70 ± 1.81	0.942	0.110	0.690
Prolactin, ng/mL	199.88 ± 3.95	205.75 ± 8.27	193.65 ± 7.17	212.06 ± 6.65	0.614	0.288	0.303
Oxytocin, pg/mL	5.11 ± 0.15	5.02 ± 0.13	5.32 ± 0.2	5.36 ± 0.22	0.492	0.146	0.977
At farrowing
Cortisol, ng/mL	47.37 ± 2.00	46.26 ± 0.96	44.52 ± 1.00	41.63 ± 1.28	0.051	0.004	0.931
Prolactin, ng/mL	229.66 ± 6.60	237.75 ± 6.11	230.33 ± 3.55	220.55 ± 4.44	0.984	0.105	0.218
Oxytocin, pg/ml	3.95 ± 0.05	4.21 ± 0.12	3.84 ± 0.14	4.08 ± 0.09	0.468	0.816	0.689
On day 21 of lactation
Cortisol, ng/mL	22.33 ± 0.70	21.35 ± 0.24	21.08 ± 0.66	21.21 ± 0.43	0.080	0.201	0.213
Prolactin, ng/mL	209.13 ± 3.38	216.75 ± 4.73	214.38 ± 2.80	220.63 ± 4.94	0.094	0.085	0.768
Oxytocin, pg/mL	3.21 ± 0.08	3.08 ± 0.06	3.23 ± 0.11	3.04 ± 0.07	0.347	0.258	0.578

¹Values are presented as means ± SE, n = 8.