PSIII-16 - The effects of secondary iron injection to suckling piglets injected with two levels of iron at birth on growth performance and hematocrit level in suckling period

Abstract: This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of secondary iron injection in suckling piglets injected with two levels of iron at birth on growth performance and hematocrit level during the suckling period. Twenty suckling pigs from five litters were allotted into two treatments within litter (10 pigs per treatment) based on body weight and gender as follows: 1) Iron100b: intramuscular injection of 100 mg iron-dextran at birth (d 1-2 of age), and 2) Iron200b: intramuscular injection of 200 mg iron-dextran at birth. A 200 mg iron-dextran was injected to all piglets intramuscularly at d 14 after the first injection (d 15-16 of age; 11 d before weaning at d 26-27 of age). Body weight and hematocrit level were measured at d 0, 7, 14 (before second injection), 21, and 25 (weaning) after the first injection. No difference was observed in growth performance between the treatments. The Iron200b treatment had greater hematocrit levels than the Iron100b treatment at d 14 (P < 0.05; 32.50 vs. 37.40% for Iron100b and Iron200b, respectively), 21 (P=0.06), and 25 (P < 0.05; 37.90 vs. 40.75%) after the first injection (d 0, 7, and 11 after second injection, respectively). The changes in hematocrit levels tended to be greater for the Iron200b treatment than the Iron100b treatment in d 7-14 (P=0.08) and 0-14 (P=0.06; 5.55 vs. 11.95%) after the first injection. After the second injection, the Iron100b treatment had greater increases (P < 0.05) in hematocrit levels than the Iron200b treatment for d 14-21 and 14-25 (5.40 vs. 3.35%) of the experiment. In conclusion, with the second injection, the 200 mg iron injection at birth had greater hematocrit levels than the 100 mg iron injection until weaning whereas the increase in hematocrit level by the second injection was greater in the 100 mg iron injection at birth than the 200 mg iron.