Five experiments were conducted with female pigs to investigate the
effects of dietary biotin level on: reproductive performance and hoof
integrity over four parities (experiment 1); ovulation rate of the gilt
(experiment 2); durability of hoof horn and the phospholipid and neutral
lipid profile of perinephric and hoof horn fat (experiments 3 and 4) and
milk fat (experiment 5). Experiment 1 showed that changes in reproductive
performance and hoof integrity in adult sows occurred when pigs
were fed levels of dietary biotin previously considered to have been
sufficient to meet the sow's requirements (diet calculated to provide
32µg available biotin/kg). Notably, sows receiving 350µg supplementary
biotin/kg returned to oestrus 2.9 ± 1.7 and conceived 6.1 ± 1.4
days sooner than controls (p < 0.05). -The number of lesions/sow
increased greatly between 170 days of age and first weaning, at which
time the control sows had significantly more lesions/sow (13.45 v 9.79;
p < 0.001), but appeared to stabilise in the oldest sows. The production
of unsaturated fatty acids in the neutral lipid fraction of the
milk increased between early and late lactation in the supplemented but
not control sows (p < 0.05) in a sample of sows from control and supplemented
treatments respectively (experiment 5). The effects on
reproductive performance and the biochemical and physical effects
observed in the growing pig indicated that biotin deficiency may
produce commercially significant effects prior to the development of
symptoms of clinical deficiency. No treatment effects were observed
for weight of ovary or number of corpora lutea produced by gilts
(experiment 2). Hoof horn durability, measured using a Durometer, was
greatest in gilts fed high levels of dietary biotin (experiment 4).
The fractionated analyses of the perinephric fat indicated that the
relative percentage of C16:0 and C18:0 compared to C16:.1 and C18: 1
increased with greater dietary biotin intake and analyses of hoof horn
fat indicated similar trends (experiments 3 and 4).
Date of Award | 1985 |
---|
Original language | English |
---|
Awarding Institution | |
---|
Supervisor | Peter Brooks (Director of Studies (First Supervisor)) |
---|
THE EFFECT OF DIETARY BIOTIN LEVEL ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF THE FEMALE PIG
SIMMINS, P. H. (Author). 1985
Student thesis: PhD