Significant Weaning Weight Improvement with Tonisity Px in China

The first week of a pig’s life is a critical time for gut development and for microbiome colonisation, having long-lasting effects on the piglet’s survival and growth. For this reason, Tonisity developed a highly-palatable isotonic protein solution, Tonisity Px which supplies essential nutrients to the piglet gut from day two of life. By nourishing the gut and supporting its rapid development in early life, Tonisity Px results in better absorption of nutrients from the sow’s milk, higher survival, and optimal lifetime performance.

Background

Recently, a Tonisity Px study took place on a 2,200 sow farm in the Guangdong Province of China. Historically, the farm averages a 6-7 kg weaning weight range with 12.5-13 pigs per litter at birth. This is a total of about 60,000 pigs per year.

The trial was conducted in three farrowing rooms on the farm, where both treatments were represented in each room, resulting in a total of 1,032 piglets. In each room, litters were allocated by rows to the control or Tonisity Px (TPX) groups, depending on the side of the room which was different in each room. This was done to minimise a room or a side of the room effect on the data.

Tonisity Px Administration

• TPX piglets received Tonisity Px on day two to eight and for three days pre-weaning
• Both groups received dry creep feed from day seven to weaning on the heat pads in the pens
• Weaning age ranged between 18-22 days, with an average of 19.7 days overall

Results

• +440 g weaning weight advantage (P=0.01)
• +23 g/day extra average daily (ADG) gain pre-weaning (P<0.004)
• 41.7% fewer fall-behinds at weaning (P<0.0001)
• 33.7% more heavy pigs at weaning (P<0.003)
• 35.5% fewer TPX decliners (P<0.002) 12.7% more TPX improvers (P=0.18)

Weaning Weight and Average Daily Gain (ADG)

At weaning, TPX pigs had an average weaning weight of 6.56 kg, which was 440 g heavier than the control group’s average weaning weight of 6.12 kg. This represents a statistically significant 7.2% increase in weaning weight.

In support of the observed weaning weight advantages, the ADG was also 23 g/day higher for the TPX pigs, which was a statistically significant 9.8% improvement.

Improvers, Decliners and Fall-behinds

Weight category changes (Improvers Vs. Decliners)
In other Tonisity studies, it has been observed that initial birth-weight categories don’t necessarily translate into the same weaning-weight categories. This means that a pig born with a high birth-weight is not guaranteed to wean at a high weaning-weight.

These weight shifts are assessed by using individual weights on each pig both at birth and weaning. At each individual time point (birth and weaning) the pigs are split into three numerically equal subgroups, each being a third of the population. Individual weights are used to identify if pigs have moved to a higher weight category, known as ‘improvers’, or if they have moved to a lower weight category, also known as ‘decliners’.

In this study, significantly less TPX pigs were decliners (P<0.0002) and more TPX pigs were improvers (P=0.18). This means that 35.5% fewer TPX pigs declined in their weight category between initial weight day and weaning and 12.7% more TPX pigs improved their weight category between initial weight day and weaning.

Conclusion

Using Tonisity Px in early life helped the piglets grow better before weaning and achieve heavier weaning weights. This is the eighth trial conducted in China using the same protocol, and all experiments have shown the same results. Pigs receiving Tonisity Px were, on average, 372 g heavier at weaning (N = 6,199 pigs). Other experiments have shown that this weaning weight advantage can result in about 3 to 4 kg extra live weight at the same age, at the end of the fattening stage. This is one of the main reasons for the usual 5:1 return on investment (ROI) generally observed with Tonisity Px.  

For more information, please visit www.tonisity.com or contact info@tonisity.com.