Riboflavin requirement of lactating swine

Twenty-five crossbred gilts and 25 crossbred sows were used in an experiment to estimate the riboflavin requirement of lactating swine. During gestation the females were fed a 12% crude protein, corn-soybean meal diet that was marginal in riboflavin content, i.e., 2.3 mg/kg. After farrowing, litter size was equalized across lactation diets within each parity category. The basal, 14% crude-protein corn-soybean meal lactation diet was supplemented to provide five levels of dietary riboflavin: 1.25, 2.25, 3.25, 4.25 and 5.25 mg/kg. Five gilts and five sows were fed each dietary treatment. Each dam was provided her assigned diet ad libitum during the 24-d lactation; piglets were not provided supplemental feed. The erythrocyte glutathione reductase activity coefficient (EGRAC), an indicator of riboflavin status, was measured on blood samples obtained from the dams and their piglets on d 1 and d 24 postpartum. On d 1, the mean EGRAC of gilts was slightly higher than that of sows, while piglet EGRAC was similar regardless of maternal age. On d 24 gilts and their piglets had higher average EGRAC (P less than .01) than did sows and their piglets. Thus, there was a treatment x dam age interaction (P less than .05). Lactation performance criteria gave further evidence of similar treatment x age group interactions. Gilts fed the diet containing 1.25 ppm riboflavin had higher piglet mortality, consumed less feed and lost more weight (P less than .05) for each criterion than did sows fed the same diet. Despite these observations, the broken-line estimates of the riboflavin requirement, based on EGRAC, for gilts and sows were 16.3 and 16.2 mg/d, respectively. The EGRAC values for piglets closely paralleled those of their dams regardless of treatment, suggesting that there is no mechanism to protect the nursing piglets from a maternal dietary deficiency of riboflavin.