The Effect Of Valine On Production Performance, Immune Function And Nitrogen Utilization In High-Production Lactation Sow

Present study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary valine on performance of lactating sows and their piglets, milk yield and composition, immune function, nitrogen metabolism, and blood metabolite profiles of sows during the whole period of lactation.A total of 24 lactating sows nursing aboutâ…¡piglets were assigned to 24 pens in a completely randomized design. There were twelve pen replicates in each of two treatment combinations. The basal maize-soybeans meal diet was formulated to meet or exceed NRC (1998) requirements for lactating sows except for valine. Dietary treatments included the basal supplemented with 0 and 4.3 g/kg valine. In the 28-day study, each pen was offered the respective diet and all lactating sows were given ad libitum access to feed and water. The results are shown below:1 Productive performanceDuring 0-28 days, the results showed that the addition of dietary valine decreased the body weight loss (P<0.05), and shortened the weaning-to-estrus interval (P<0.05). In addition, there were no significant differences in back-fat thickness loss, average daily feed intake and piglet livability during lactation period.Adding valine on dietary could improve the productive performance of piglets. The results of feeding experiment indicate that compared with the control group, the addition of valine increased the 25th day litter weight and weaning litter weight (P<0.05),1-25 days,1-28 days,15-28 days litter gain (P<0.05), average daily gain (P<0.05) except for the 1-5,5-10 and 10-15 days during lactation, and also increased the body weight of piglets (P<0.05) except for the 5th,10th and 15th day during lactation. Moreover, supplementation with valine could markedly decrease the incidence of diarrhea in piglets during the lactation.2 Milk yield and compositionCompared with the control group, dietary supplementation of valine increased the 5th day,15th day, and 20th day milk yield during lactation (P<0.05) and elevated the 11th day and 21th day milk protein, milk fat, total solid matter, non fat-soil, total essential amino acids, total amino acids (P<0.05).3 Hormone levels and antioxidant functionCompared with the control group, dietary supplementation of valine increased the level of serum prolactin and estradiol by 19.12%(P<0.05),7.3%(P<0.05), on the 7th day, serum level of insulin and prolactin increased by 16.4%(P<0.01),15.53% (P<0.05) on the 14th day, and serum levels of insulin by 10.12%(P<0.05) on the 21th day. In addition, dietary supplementation of valine increased the level of prolactin and insulin on the 11th day and the level of insulin on the 21th day (P<0.05) in skimmed milk.Function tests of the antioxidant system revealed that:supplementation of valine significantly increased T-AOC in serum and milk (P<0.05). In addition, the addition of valine decreased MDA content on the 21th d in milk (P<0.05).4 Immune functionsCompared with the control group, dietary supplementation of valine could increase the number of blood lymphocyte and leucocyte on the 14th day and 21th day and the number of blood lymphocyte on the 7th day (P<0.05). The addition of valine also improved the level of serum IgG and C3 on the 14th day (P<0.05) and the level of serum C3, C4 on the 21th day (P<0.01). In addition, serum IgM concentration was significantly higher than the control over the whole trial period.5 Serum biochemical indices and enzyme activityCompared with the control group, the addition of valine improved the activity of serum glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase during lactation period (P<0.05) in lactation (P<0.05). In addition, the activity of serum Y-glutamyltransferase also improved by 5.7%(P<0.05) and 12.31%(P<0.01) on the 14th and 21th day, respectively.The supplementation of valine could significantly reduce the concentration of serum glycerin trilaurate on the 14th and 21th day.6 Apparent nitrogen digestibilityDuring lactation period, milk urea nitrogen, serum urea nitrogen and serum creatinine decreased as valine intake increased during lactation period. Compared with control group, dietary supplementation of valine could decrease the 21th day serum urea nitrogen and serum creatinine by 7.4%(P<0.05) and 5.2%(P<0.05), respectively.ConclusionIn conclusion, the supplementation of valine could improve performance of lactating sows and their piglets, milk yield and composition, immune functions of lactating sows and their piglets.