The following article was written by Jennifer Shike and published in Farm Journal’s magazine, PORK.
Colostrum can be the difference between life and death for a piglet. As litter size increases, colostrum intake becomes even more critical, says Bryn Anderson, a veterinary student at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine.
“Passive transfer of immunity is one of the most critical determinants of piglet survival and early growth, yet it remains highly variable in commercial systems,” she explained at the Allen D. Leman Swine Conference. “Piglets rely entirely on colostrum for immunoglobulins, but successful intake depends on factors like sow physiology, litter size and piglet vigor.”
She says this variability means that a proportion of piglets consistently fall short of adequate immune protection.
“There has been growing interest in whether management interventions—such as administering oxytocin—could stimulate more efficient colostrum release in the immediate postpartum period,” Anderson says.
“The idea is that oxytocin may help keep mammary tight junctions open longer after farrowing, extending the colostrum phase and allowing more immunoglobulins to pass into milk for piglets to absorb.” – Bryn Anderson
She set out to evaluate whether giving a higher dose of oxytocin would improve both colostrum quality and piglet immunoglobulin transfer, since even modest improvements could have meaningful impacts to any size of pork production.
In a systematic, controlled field trial at a commercial sow farm, Anderson enrolled 96 sows in her study and randomly assigned them to either receive a high dose of oxytocin 12–20 hours after farrowing or serve as untreated controls.