Serum folates in gestating swine after folic acid addition to diet

Folic acid was added to the diet as a simple means to increase serum folates in gestating sows. At weaning, 95 multiparous sows were randomly assigned to five treatments. Of these sows, 67 farrowed and were used for this trial. Three supplementation levels of folic acid added to a commercial diet at 3, 9 and 27 mg per kg were studied. A commercial diet without any supplementation of folic acid was used as a control treatment. A fifth treatment consisted of eight im injections of 15 mg of folic acid each, according to a predetermined schedule that was previously effective in improving the reproductive performance of sows when combined with flushing. Each sow was kept in an individual cage and received 2 kg of feed daily. Serum folates were measured at weaning, mating and on d 14, 28, 42 and 56 after mating. The time-response curve of serum folates in sows injected with folic acid was higher than that of sows fed the unsupplemented diet (P = .057). Adding folic acid to diet may be as efficient as folic acid injections to elevate serum folates when compared with sows fed the control diet. The mean supplementary level of folic acid sufficient to maintain the serum folate concentration at approximately the same levels as those observed in sows injected with folic acid was estimated to be near 4.3 mg per kg of feed.