BUTYRATE SUPPLEMENTATION TO GESTATING SOWS AND PIGLETS. PART II, SOWS’ POINT OF VIEW

Nutrition plays a major role in the reproductive efficiency in sows. Dietary fiber intake is known to improve reproductive performance in sows and it is fermented in the colon into SCFA by gut microbiota. Among those SCFA, butyrate plays an important role influencing nutrient absorption, growth performance and inflammatory response. Information about the impact of sodium butyrate (SB) supplementation on reproductive performance of gilts and sows is scarce. When sows return to estrus after insemination causes a large source of economic loss to pig producers. In general, sows return to estrus at regular interval (21 days) if there is a fertilization failure or early pregnancy loss. He et al., 2016 found that, the rate of gilts return to estrus after insemination was lower in SB group than control group. It may suggest that dietary SB could, to some extent, regulate the fertilization in gilts or could improve porcine oocyte development and blastocyst formation as Liu et al. (2012a and 2012b) found in vitro. In the same context, Chen et al. (2019) found that supplementing with SB, MCFA, or n-3 PUFA during late pregnancy and lactation the weaning-to-estrus interval of sows was significantly shorter than that of sows in the control group. Furthermore, in the same study, dietary SB supplementation had a greater effect on intestinal health and caused a greater decrease in preweaning mortality of suckling piglets than did the other treatments. This could also be linked with changes in the colostrum composition with an increase in IgA and IgG (Chen et al., 2019; He et al., 2006) and IgM, fat and protein (Chen et al., 2019). Taken altogether, these results provide very interesting information on the impact of the use of sodium butyrate in pregnant, lactating and in the mating period of sows.