EFFECT OF IMPRINTING WITH PRINT-AROME® ON PERFORMANCE AND HEALTH PARAMETERS IN WEANED PIGLETS

A trial based on Print-Arome® was presented during the APSA 2019 in Adelaide (Australia). This was an expanded version of the trial previously presented during the ASAS 2019 in Austin TX (USA) with the newest data obtained. As a summary, the objective of this trial was to evaluate the effect of prenatal and postnatal inclusion of Print-Arome® on performance parameters and health parameters after 2 weeks post-weaning. The trial followed a 2x3 factorial design; 2 sow diets: basal (B) or with Print-Arome® (EO) at 375 g/t x 3 piglet diets: basal diet (B), medicated with 200 ppm of colistin (A) or treated with 375 g/t of Print-Arome® (EO). A total of 168 weaned piglets were randomly distributed in the 6 groups: 3 from basal sows (BB, BA and BEO) and 3 from Print-Arome® sows (TB, TA and TEO), being the animals from the TEO treatment the ones imprinted. Despite the non-significant differences in performance parameters, in this study the effect of imprinting with essential oils reduced diarrhea incidence. This finding is consistent with another trial previously carried out. Another relevant result was a trend of lower levels of haptoglobin which was also observed in the group of imprinted animals compared to the other piglets coming from Print-Arome® sows. Haptoglobin is an acute-phase protein (APP), in particular a positive APP, which means that its concentration in plasma increases in response to inflammation