Effect of immunoglobulin source on survival, growth, and hematological and immunological variables in pigs

The effects of feeding different sources of immunoglobulins (sow's colostrum by nursing, SC; no colostrum, NC; bovine colostrum, BC; and porcine immunoglobulins, PI) to neonatal pigs during the first 2 d of life on their subsequent survival, growth, feed intake, feed conversion, incidence of diarrhea, and selected hematological and immunological variables were assessed throughout a 19-d experimental period. After d 2, all pigs were fed the same liquid basal diet. Crossbred neonatal pigs, 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 were similar (P > .05), regardless of treatment. A transient physiological scours was observed in 20 to 50% of the pigs between 5 and 7 d of age; 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) than those of the other treatments. Concentrations of total serum proteins, trichloroacetic acid-precipitable proteins, and serum IgG of SC pigs were higher (P < .01) than those of pigs in the other treatments. These results showed that porcine immunoglobulins or bovine colostrum can be satisfactorily used as immunoglobulin sources in artificial rearing of colostrum-deprived neonatal pigs.