Tramadol improved the efficacy of ketamine–xylazine anaesthesia in young pigs

ObjectiveTo evaluate the influence of premedication with tramadol on xylazine–ketamine anaesthesia in young pigs.Study designProspective, randomized, blinded cross-over study.AnimalsTen young Niger hybrid pigs: mean weight 6.1 ± 0.6 kg.MethodsPigs were anaesthetized twice. Xylazine (2.5 mg kg^?1), ketamine (25 mg kg^?1) and atropine (0.04 mg kg^?1) were administered by intramuscular (IM) injection, 5 minutes after either tramadol (5 mg kg^?1)) (treatment XKT) or saline (treatment XKS). Time to loss of righting reflex (TLRR), duration of antinociception, duration of recumbency (DR) and recovery times (RCT) were recorded. Quality of induction of anaesthesia including ease of endotracheal intubation was assessed using a subjective ordinal rating score of 1 (worst) to 4 (best). Heart, pulse and respiratory rates, arterial oxygen saturations and rectal temperatures were determined over 60 minutes. Antinociception was assessed by the pigs’ response to artery forceps applied at the interdigital space. Data were compared with Student's t-test, Mann–Whitney's test or analysis of variance (anova) for repeated measures as appropriate and are presented as mean ± standard deviation.ResultsThe quality of anaesthetic induction was significantly better and duration of antinociception significantly longer (p < 0.05) in treatment XKT (3.1 ± 0.7 score; 43.7 ± 15.5 minutes) than in treatment XKS (2.8 ± 0.6 score; 32.0 ± 13.3 minutes). TLRR, DR and RCT did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) between treatment XKT (2.1 ± 0.8, 65.8 ± 17.0 and 13.2 ± 6.7 minutes) and treatment XKS (2.1 ± 1.3, 58.0 ± 14.8 and 10.3 ± 5.6 minutes). Physiological measurements did not differ between the treatments.Conclusion and clinical relevanceTramadol improved the quality of anaesthetic induction and increased the duration of antinociception in xylazine–ketamine anaesthetized young pigs without increasing duration of anaesthesia, nor causing additional depression of the physiological parameters measured.     

Effects of formulating growing pig diet with increasing levels of wheat‐corn distillers dried grains with solubles on digestible nutrient basis on growth performance and nutrient digestibility

Formulating swine diets containing fibrous coproducts based on net energy (NE) and standardized ileal digestible amino acid (SID AA) values is recommended for optimizing pig performance. However, the effects of applying this approach to diets with increasing dietary levels of wheat‐corn‐derived distillers dried grains with soluble (wcDDGS) on pig performance have not been evaluated. Thus, 48 pigs with an average body weight [BW] of 25.5 kg were used to determine the effects of increasing wcDDGS (1:1 wheat to corn ratio) content in grower diets on performance and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of energy and nutrients. Pigs were housed in pens of either 2 barrows or gilts balanced for BW and fed 4 diets within sex for 42 days. Diets were a nutrient adequate corn–barley–soybean meal‐based diet with 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% wcDDGS, and were similar in calculated NE and SID AA values. Acid insoluble ash was used as the indigestible marker. Final BW and overall average daily gain (ADG) linearly decreased (p < 0.05) and feed efficiency tended to decrease (p = 0.07) with increased dietary wcDDGS. Overall average daily feed intake was not affected (p > 0.10) by dietary treatment. The ATTD of dry matter and energy linearly decreased (p < 0.01), whereas the ATTD of neutral detergent fibre linearly increased (p < 0.01) with increasing dietary level of wcDDGS. Increasing dietary wcDDGS content did not affect (p > 0.10) ATTD of Ca and P. In conclusion, increasing dietary wcDDGS content reduced growth performance and ATTD of energy in growing pigs. Thus, the risks of high dietary wcDGGS content may not be completely alleviated by formulating growing pig diets on the basis of NE and SID AA systems.     

Effect of mixed rearing of barrows and gilts on backfat thickness and serum metabolite profiles of the Kagoshima-Kurobuta (Berkshire) pig

We investigated the effect of mixed rearing of barrows and gilts on the backfat thickness and the serum metabolite profiles of Kagoshima-Kurobuta (Berkshire) pigs. A total of 149 pigs with an average body weight of 35 kg were divided into the following groups: 100%, 90%, 70%, 50%, 30%, 10%, and 0% groups consisting of 10 barrows (1 pen), 9 barrows + 1 gilt (3 pens), 7 barrows + 3 gilts (2 pens), 5 barrows + 5 gilts (3 pens), 3 barrows + 7 gilts (2 pens), 1 barrow + 9 gilts (3 pens), and 9 gilts (1 pen), respectively. All pigs were raised to a shipping weight of 120 kg. Mixed rearing significantly reduced (p < 0.001) backfat thickness, and the optimum mixing ratio of barrows and gilts was 7:3 (the 70% group). Four types of circulating sex steroids were found in both the barrows and gilts in the 50% group but were not detected in barrows from the 100% group. These results indicated that mixed rearing of barrows and gilts was effective for reducing the backfat thickness of barrows, and induced sex steroid hormones may influence the backfat thickness of barrows in mixed-reared groups.     

Effect of follistatin on pre‐implantational development of pig parthenogenetic embryos

The present study was designed to explore effects of follistatin (FST) on pre‐implantational development of parthenogenetically activated embryos (PAEs) in pigs. First, we investigated the FST messenger RNA expression level and dynamic FST protein expression patterns in porcine oocytes and PAEs. Then, PAEs were placed in embryo culture medium supplemented with 10 ng/mL of FST‐288, FST‐300, and FST‐315. Next, PAEs were cultured with 0, 1, 10 and 100 ng/mL of FST‐315 protein throughout the in vitro culture (IVC) duration. Further, 10 ng/mL of FST‐300 was added from the start of IVC in which PAEs were treated for 30, 48 and 60 h. The results showed that 1 ng/mL FST‐315 could significantly increase the total cell numbers of blastocyst and trophectoderm cell number in PAEs. Exogenous FST‐300 supplementation could significantly promote the early cleavage divisions and improve the blastocyst formation rate of porcine embryos. FST‐300 appeared to affect early embryonic development before activation of the embryonic genome. In all, the study confirmed for the first time that FST plays a role in promoting early embryonic development in pigs, which differed with different FST subtypes. FST‐300 could facilitate the initial cleavage time and improve the blastocyst formation rate, and FST‐315 could improve the blastocyst quality.     

斜发沸石对苏淮育肥猪血液生化指标和肠道形态的影响

旨在研究基础日粮中添加不同水平的斜发沸石对苏淮育肥猪血液生化指标、肠道形态的影响,为斜发沸石在苏淮猪生产中的应用提供数据参考。选择体重(50±2)kg、健康的苏淮阉公猪40头,随机分为对照组、试验Ⅰ组、试验Ⅱ组、试验Ⅲ组共4个处理组。试验预饲期10 d,所有猪自由采食对照组基础日粮;正试期64 d,对照组饲喂基础日粮,试验Ⅰ至Ⅲ组分别在基础日粮中添加0.5%、1.0%、2.0%的斜发沸石。结果:随斜发沸石水平增加,血清免疫球蛋白G(IgG)、肠道黏膜分泌型免疫球蛋白(sIgA)和肠道黏膜IgG含量升高。随斜发沸石水平增加,血清碱性磷酸酶含量升高;血清甘油三酯含量先升高后降低。随斜发沸石水平增加,平均红细胞血红蛋白浓度含量升高;红细胞分布宽度变异系数降低。随斜发沸石水平增加,十二指肠隐窝深度降低;空肠绒毛高度和空肠段绒毛高度/隐窝深度有升高的趋势。试验表明,在各组日粮消化能和粗蛋白均满足且一致的情况下,添加适宜比例斜发沸石对改善猪的机体血液及肠道免疫功能有积极作用。综合考虑以上检测指标变化规律及斜发沸石添加成本,建议斜发沸石的适宜添加比例为1.0%。     

猪场废水的生物处理技术及其效果

规模化养猪场所产生的废水污染，已成我国农村面临污染的重要来源。针对这种污染，近年来出现了多种养猪场废水处理法，其中研究和应用最广的是生物处理法。本文通过对目前国内猪场废水生物处理法的现状分析后认为：用生物处理法处理猪场废水是今后猪场废水处理的发展方向；而生物处理法自身的发展方向是混合处理法；计算机和生物工程技术将进一步与生物处理法相结合运用于猪场废水处理。     

三种营养需要模式对生长肥育猪生产性能、胴体品质和瘦肉生长的影响

试验选用体重约20.4kg的三元杂交[杜×(大×长)]猪96头 ,分为3个处理 ,每个处理4个重复 ,分别饲喂3种营养需要模式的饲粮 ,生长期猪体重为20～50kg,肥育期为50～92kg,研究3种营养需要模式对生长肥育猪生产性能、胴体品质和胴体瘦肉生长的影响。结果表明 ,采用建议的营养需要模式配制的饲粮饲养生长肥育猪 ,获得的生产性能、胴体品质、胴体瘦肉增重和无脂瘦肉增重以及胴体瘦肉成分与采用NRC(1998)营养需要模式配制的饲粮相近 ,而且20～90kg 期间无脂瘦肉增重已达到NRC(1998)认为的具有中-高瘦肉生长速度。采用中国(1987)营养需要模式配制的饲粮饲养生长肥育猪 ,其生产性能、胴体瘦肉增重和无脂瘦肉增重都极显著低于上述两种营养需要模式的饲粮 ,综合胴体品质也较差。从本试验结果看来 ,建议的营养需要模式可满足杜×(大×长)生长肥育猪的需要