| dc.description.abstract | The amount of colostrum newborn piglets ingest in the first 24h after birth is of vital importance for their growth and the development of their immunity system during the first weeks of life. Colostrum does not only provide them with a high dose of energy and nutrients but contains a very high concentration of IgG antibodies as well. Treating post-partum sows with an analgesic might enhance the sow’s welfare and hence enlarge the amount of colostrum intake by its piglets. In this clinical trial, the influence of injecting a single dose Meloxicam (Novem®) to farrowing sows post-partum on piglet bodyweight and serological IgG concentration is studied. Sows included (n=30) farrowed at the same day on the same farrow-to-finish farm in The Netherlands and were divided into two groups, a trial group (n=12) that received Meloxicam 20mg/ml (Novem®) and a control group (n=18) that did not receive any treatment. In the larger part of the litters, the piglets received an individual ID number, this enabled paired analysis on weight data from different points in time for 129 control and 120 trial piglets. Piglets were weighed at days 3 and 18 and serological IgG concentrations were quantified in 249 piglets at day 3 using Pig IgG ELISA (Bethyl Laboratories®). All data on weight and IgG-titre were analysed with SPSS21 Mixed ANOVA. The weight at 3 days appeared to be significantly (p=0,002) higher in the Meloxicam treated group (mean 1,88kg) than in the control group (mean 1,70kg). However, the observed higher mean on day 18 (trial:5,54kg, control:5,53kg) was not significantly different (0,234). The logIgG-values on day 3 (trial:4,54, control:4,10) were also not significantly different (p=0,099) between the two groups. Finally, as piglets might benefit from the analgesic in being able to ingest more colostrum, less spread of IgG titres within these litters could be expected. In this study, the variation coefficient did not appear to differ significantly (p=0,051) between the trial (VC=18,7%) and control (VC=29,8%) group. However, the p-value being below 0,1 did show a strong statistical trend towards significance. In conclusion of these results, administering Novem® to post-partum sows enlarges piglet weight at 3 days of age, possibly due to the intake of an enlarged amount of colostrum. This difference in weight did not show to be consistent in time, no significant differences could be found by day 18. As for piglet IgG titres, treatment led to two statistical trends to significance, the first in enlarging IgG concentration and secondly in lowering the variation of IgG titres within trial litters.The amount of colostrum newborn piglets ingest in the first 24h after birth is of vital importance for their growth and the development of their immunity system during the first weeks of life. Colostrum does not only provide them with a high dose of energy and nutrients but contains a very high concentration of IgG antibodies as well. Treating post-partum sows with an analgesic might enhance the sow’s welfare and hence enlarge the amount of colostrum intake by its piglets. In this clinical trial, the influence of injecting a single dose Meloxicam (Novem®) to farrowing sows post-partum on piglet bodyweight and serological IgG concentration is studied. Sows included (n=30) farrowed at the same day on the same farrow-to-finish farm in The Netherlands and were divided into two groups, a trial group (n=12) that received Meloxicam 20mg/ml (Novem®) and a control group (n=18) that did not receive any treatment. In the larger part of the litters, the piglets received an individual ID number, this enabled paired analysis on weight data from different points in time for 129 control and 120 trial piglets. Piglets were weighed at days 3 and 18 and serological IgG concentrations were quantified in 249 piglets at day 3 using Pig IgG ELISA (Bethyl Laboratories®). All data on weight and IgG-titre were analysed with SPSS21 Mixed ANOVA. The weight at 3 days appeared to be significantly (p=0,002) higher in the Meloxicam treated group (mean 1,88kg) than in the control group (mean 1,70kg). However, the observed higher mean on day 18 (trial:5,54kg, control:5,53kg) was not significantly different (0,234). The logIgG-values on day 3 (trial:4,54, control:4,10) were also not significantly different (p=0,099) between the two groups. Finally, as piglets might benefit from the analgesic in being able to ingest more colostrum, less spread of IgG titres within these litters could be expected. In this study, the variation coefficient did not appear to differ significantly (p=0,051) between the trial (VC=18,7%) and control (VC=29,8%) group. However, the p-value being below 0,1 did show a strong statistical trend towards significance. In conclusion of these results, administering Novem® to post-partum sows enlarges piglet weight at 3 days of age, possibly due to the intake of an enlarged amount of colostrum. This difference in weight did not show to be consistent in time, no significant differences could be found by day 18. As for piglet IgG titres, treatment led to two statistical trends to significance, the first in enlarging IgG concentration and secondly in lowering the variation of IgG titres within trial litters. | |
