Effect of breed, diet, period and lactation numbers on immunoglobulin G concentration in swine colostrum

The objective of the present study was to determine the effects of breed, d iet, period of the year and lactation numbers on the concentration of immun oglobulin G (IgG) in sows colostrum. IgG concentration was determined in co lostrum of 60 sows (33 Large White and 27 Landrace) submitted to four diffe rent diets with 0%, 7%, 14% and 21 % of dried yeast. Dried yeast from alcoh ol of sugar cane industry (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) was used as substitute for com and soybean mill keeping the level of crude protein at 14%. IgG co ncentration in the colostrum was not affected by breed and diet. Higher con centration of IgG was found in colostrum of sows farrowing occurred between May and October (P <0.05). Quadratic (P <0.10) and cubic (P <0.01) effects of parturition order on IgG concentration were detected. Females from firs t parturition had lower concentration (P <0.05) of IgG (49.98 +/- 7.9 mg/mL ) compared to females from second (92.70 +/-5.9 mg/mL), third (70.72 +/-5.6 mg/mL) and fourth (85.56 +/-9.0 mg/mL) parturition, demonstrating that ani mals with more immunological experience have higher concentrations of IgG i n the colostrum.