EFFECT OF IMMUNOGLOBULIN SOURCE ON SURVIVAL, GROWTH, AND HEMATOLOGICAL AND IMMUNOLOGICAL VARIABLES IN PIGS

The effects of feeding different sources of immunoglobulins (sow's col ostrum by nursing, SC; no colostrum, NC; bovine colostrum, BC; and por cine immunoglobulins, PI) to neonatal pigs during the first 2 d of lif e on their subsequent survival, growth, feed intake, feed conversion, incidence of diarrhea, and selected hematological and immunological va riables were assessed throughout a 19-d experimental period. After d 2 , all pigs were fed the same liquid basal diet. Crossbred neonatal pig s, 10 per treatment, were individually reared after birth (NC, BC, and PI) or 2 d of age (SC) with an automatic feeding device. All pigs of treatments SC and PI, and 80 and 30% (P <.01) of pigs of treatments BC and NC, respectively, survived to the end of the trial. Growth, feed intake, and feed conversion efficiency (gain/feed) of surviving pigs w ere similar (P >.05), regardless of treatment. A transient physiologic al scours was observed in 20 to 50% of the pigs between 5 and 7 d of a ge; by 10 d of age, all pigs had solid feces. Hemoglobin concentration and hematocrit in blood of pigs of treatment NC were lower (P <.05) t han those of the other treatments. Concentrations of total serum prote ins, trichloroacetic acid-precipitable proteins, and serum IgG of SC p igs were higher (P <.01) than those of pigs in the other treatments. T hese results showed that porcine immunoglobulins or bovine colostrum c an be satisfactorily used as immunoglobulin sources in artificial rear ing of colostrum-deprived neonatal pigs.