Location: Livestock Behavior Research
Project Number: 5020-32000-014-012-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jan 1, 2024
End Date: Jun 30, 2024
Objective:
The project objective is to evaluate the use of water delivered L-glutamine on improving behavioral and physiological indicators of animal welfare in newly weaned and transported pigs.
Approach:
Previous research by our group has determined that replacing commonly used prophylactic antibiotics with L-glutamine in swine diets results in similar improvements in growth performance, gastrointestinal health, and behavioral and physiological indicators of pig welfare. However, a drawback to this approach is that newly weaned and transported pigs often do not consume sufficient quantities of feed, and subsequently L-glutamine, in the first 1 to 5 days post-weaning and transport to meet their requirements. As such, identifying new strategies to increase consumption of L-glutamine immediately following this practice may be of benefit to further enhancing pig health, productivity, and welfare after common production stressors. Therefore, in partnership with applied swine nutritionists employed by the Cooperator, ARS scientists will evaluate the use of water delivered L-glutamine on indicators of swine health (i.e., gastrointestinal permeability, inflammation, and immune biomarkers), performance (growth rate, feed intake, feed efficiency), and welfare (i.e., behavior, salivary cortisol) in newly weaned pigs transported to ARS space. Because newly weaned and transported pigs will consume sufficient quantities of water immediately upon placement into their pens, it expected that this new delivery system will significantly enhance recovery from this potentially stressful process.
