Creatine monohydrate supplementation of sow diets pre-partum improved neonatal piglet characteristics

Intermittent oxygen deprivation during farrowing reduces the viability and vigour of neonatal piglets. Oxygen deprived piglets which survive parturition take longer to suckle, ingest less colostrum, grow more slowly and are more likely to die before weaning (Herpin et al. 1996). Adding compounds to the maternal pre-partum diet which protect the brain of the foetal piglet from the negative impacts of oxygen deprivation (neuro-protectants) may be a simple and effective strategy to improve piglet viability, vigour and survival. In rodents, maternal ingestion of creatine monohydrate (CR) protects the foetal brain from the damage associated with acute hypoxic insults at term (Dickinson et al. 2014). Consequently, it was hypothesised that supplementing the diets of gestating sows with CR for 5 days before parturition would increase neonatal vitality of piglets born at the end of the birth order.

Five days prior to the farrowing due date, the diets of 98 Large White × Landrace sows (parity 3.9 ± 0.19; mean ± SEM) were supplemented with either 0%, 2.5% or 5% CR (n = 38, 29 and 31 sows/treatment, respectively). Sows were housed in farrowing crates and received 1 kg of the same diet three times per day (14.2 MJ digestible energy/kg; 17.3% crude protein). The CR was top-dressed onto the diet and divided equally across each feed allocation. Total litter size, number of piglets born alive and still born, neonatal piglet behaviour, piglet liveweight (LW) gain in the first 24 h, piglet plasma glucose and immunoglobulin (IgG) intake (immunocrit; Vallet et al. 2013) at 24 h of age were recorded. For statistical analyses, piglets were grouped on birth order (first one to four, middle five to eight, and last > eight). Piglet behaviours were log-transformed prior to analyses. Treatment and birth order effects were analysed using an unbalanced design ANOVA (GenStat, 15th Edition; UK). Actual means are presented for piglet behaviours. Due to the lack of any significant interactions, only main effects are presented.

Treatment did not affect (P > 0.05) the total number of piglets born (13.0 ± 0.3), born alive (12.2 ± 0.3) or stillborn (0.8 ± 0.1) (all mean ± SEM). Pre-farrowing supplementation with CR reduced (P < 0.05) the piglets’ interval to first contact with the udder (Table 1). Compared to the 0% CR treatment, 2.5% CR reduced piglet latency to suckle and increased plasma glucose at 24 h of age (Table 1). Feeding 5% CR doubled piglet LW gain during the first 24 h of life compared to offering no CR (P < 0.05; Table 1). Piglets born last in the birth order took longer to suckle and had lower immunocrit at 24 h of age than those born first (P < 0.05; Table 1).

Table 1.  Effect of 0%, 2.5% and 5% creatine monohydrate (CR) supplementation for 5 days pre-farrowing and piglet birth order (first one to four, middle five to eight, and last > 8) on neonatal piglet behaviour, piglet weight gain in the first 24 h, and piglet plasma glucose and estimated IgG intake (immunocrit) at 24 h of age

It is evident that regardless of piglet birth order adding CR to sow diets for a short time before farrowing improved characteristics of piglets commonly associated with increased pre-weaning survival, and reduced behaviours associated with exposure to intra-partum hypoxia. The effects of maternal CR supplementation on piglet survival and growth to weaning need to be established commercially.