EFFECT OF IMPRINTING WITH PRINT-AROME® IN WEANED PIGLETS

A trial based on Print-Arome® was presented during the ASAS 2019 celebrated in Austin, TX (USA). The aim of the trial was to evaluate the effect of prenatal and postnatal exposure to Print-Arome® on performance parameters and diarrheas after 2 weeks post-weaning. The trial followed a 2×3 factorial design; 2 sow diets: basal with or without Print-Arome® at 375 g/t x 3 piglet diets: basal diet, medicated with 200 ppm of colistin or treated with 375 g/t of Print-Arome®. A total of 168 weaned piglets were randomly distributed in the 6 groups: 3 from basal sows (CC, CM and CT) and 3 from Print-Arome® sows (TC, TM and TT), being the animals from the TT treatment the ones imprinted. The incidence of diarrhea was recorded twice a day and calculated using the percentage of pens positive with diarrhea over the total period of observations carried out. The animals were weighed at 14 days post-weaning. Average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were calculated. Animals from the TT group had significantly lower incidence of diarrhea from 0 to 14 days post weaning. Diarrhea was recorded on 4.7b% of the observations (TT group), being significantly lower (P≤0.001) than the animals from CC (10.8a%), CM (13.7a%), CT (10.7a%), TC (14.4a%) and TM (12.9a%). Performance parameters indicated that there were non-significant differences in BW, ADFI, ADG with numerically lower FCR (kg/kg) 1.14 in TT group (CC 1.23, CM 1.33, CT 1.27, TC 1.22, TM 1.23). Despite the non-significant differences in performance parameters, in this study the effect of imprinting with Print-Arome® reduced diarrhea incidence