Selected Nutrition and Management Strategies in Suckling Pigs to Improve Post-Weaning Outcomes

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Weaning involves the removal of piglets from a sow, and on commercial farms, it usually occurs at between 3 and 5 weeks of age. Newly weaned piglets face physical, social, environmental, management and dietary challenges. Consequently, post-weaning, they often experience reduced feed intake, poor growth and, in some cases, diarrhoea. There are many interventions which can be employed on-farm during the suckling period to ease the transition at weaning for piglets. Strategies such as supervised farrowing, post-farrowing pain relief for sows, the use of nurse sows, cross-fostering, the administration of energy supplements/feed additives to piglets and liquid/dry creep feeding have been investigated. The objective of these strategies is to promote earlier feed exploration, increase early post-weaning feed intake and growth and improve intestinal maturity. This review focuses in particular on pain relief for sows, piglet management at birth, and the provision of supplementary milk/liquid feed and feed additives to suckling piglets. Carefully selected, these strategies have the potential to increase the lifetime growth and health of pigs from large litters. ABSTRACT: Weaning is a critical period in a pig’s life. Piglets are confronted with abrupt changes to their physical and social environment, as well as management and nutritional changes. Weaning has always been associated with a growth check and is frequently accompanied by post-weaning diarrhoea in piglets. However, rapid increases in litter size in the last decade have increased within-litter piglet weight variation, with piglets now generally lighter at weaning, making the challenges associated with weaning even greater. Many interventions can be employed during the suckling period to ease the weaning transition for piglets. Pre-weaning strategies such as supervised farrowing (assistance with suckling and oxytocin provision), the provision of pain relief to sows around farrowing, split-suckling, early oral supplementation with glucose, bovine colostrum, faecal microbiota transplantation, feed additives and solid and liquid creep feeding (milk and liquid feed) have all been investigated. The objective of these strategies is to stimulate earlier maturation of the digestive tract, improve immunity, reduce latency to the first feed post-weaning and increase early post-weaning feed intake and growth. This review focuses in particular on: (1) pain relief provision to sows around farrowing, (2)split-suckling of piglets, (3) pre-weaning provision of supplementary milk and/or liquid feed, (4) other strategies to stimulate earlier enzyme production (e.g., enzyme supplementation), (5) other nutritional strategies to promote improved gut structure and function (e.g., L-glutamine supplementation), and (6) other strategies to modulate gut microbiota (e.g., probiotics and prebiotics). Correctly implementing these strategies can, not only increase post-weaning growth and reduce mortality, but also maximise lifetime growth in pigs.