Effects of mannan oligosaccharides and Lactobacillus mucosae on growth performance, immune response, and gut health of weanling pigs challenged with Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharides.

Addition of pre- and probiotics may confer growth and health benefits when added to the diet of pigs. To determine the effects of feeding mannan oligosaccharide (MOS) and Lactobacillus mucosae (LM) as prebiotic and probiotic sources in weanling pigs under immune challenge, 96 weaned pigs were randomly allotted to 16 experimental pens within a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. Control diets with or without 0.

Effects of restricting energy during the gilt development period on growth and reproduction of lines differing in lean growth rate: responses in reproductive performance and longevity.

Longevity and reproductive performance are economically important traits in the swine industry that are largely influenced by nutrition and other environmental factors. Reproductive performance and longevity through 4 parities was assessed in gilts of 2 genetic lines developed on ad libitum access to feed or restricted to 75% of ad libitum intake. A total of 661 gilts were used in a 2 × 2 factorial with half of the gilts allocated to an ad libitum diet (AL; n = 330), while the other half were energy restricted by 25% (R; n = 331) from 123 to 235 d of age.

Fine mapping genetic variants associated with age at puberty and sow fertility using SowPro90 genotyping array.

Sow fertility traits, such as litter size and the number of lifetime parities produced (reproductive longevity), are economically important. Selection for these traits is difficult because they are lowly heritable and expressed late in life. Age at puberty (AP) is an early indicator of reproductive longevity.

A genome-wide association study for gestation length in swine.

Selection for increased litter size in swine has potentially resulted in a correlated increase in preweaning mortality. Additional selection criteria should be considered when selecting for increased litter size to account for associated decreases in piglet quality, specifically piglet survival, initial weight and growth. Traits such as gestation length (GL), which have been associated with piglet performance, could be utilized to improve piglet development and survivability.

Effects of energy restriction during gilt development on milk nutrient profile, milk oligosaccharides, and progeny biomarkers.

An ongoing study at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (which included 14 batches of gilts; n = 90 gilts/batch) demonstrated that energy restriction during the developmental period of a gilt increases longevity and may also have beneficial effects on progeny health and growth, particularly, parity 1 progeny. Therefore, we hypothesized that energy restriction during gilt development may affect milk nutrient profile, milk oligosaccharides (OS), and postnatal progeny biomarkers. During the development period, batch 14 gilts (n = 128, 8 gilts/pen) were fed 3 dietary treatments including the following: 1) Control diet formulated to NRC (2012) specifications (CTL); 2) Restricted (20% energy restriction via addition of 40% soy hulls; RESTR); and 3) CTL diet plus addition of crystalline amino acids equivalent to the SID Lys:ME of the RESTR diet (CTL+).

GENOMICS SYMPOSIUM: Using genomic approaches to uncover sources of variation in age at puberty and reproductive longevity in sows.

Genetic variants associated with traits such as age at puberty and litter size could provide insight into the underlying genetic sources of variation impacting sow reproductive longevity and productivity. Genomewide characterization and gene expression profiling were used using gilts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln swine resource population ( = 1,644) to identify genetic variants associated with age at puberty and litter size traits. From all reproductive traits studied, the largest fraction of phenotypic variation explained by the Porcine SNP60 BeadArray was for age at puberty (27.