C2-Unc»>ter Farming, Saturday, July 10, 1999
COLUMBUS, Ohio -
Producers frequently stumped
by the sudden death of a seem
ingly healthy and rapidly grow
ing young pigs should consider
the lack of vitamin E as a sus
pect, said Ohio State University
animal scientist Don Mahan.
Vitamin E serves as an
antioxidant in pigs, protecting
cell tissue from damage from
free oxygen generated during
metabolism. If a pig is vitamin E
deficient, muscle, liver and other
tissue will begin to break down
and can result in the animal’s
death.
“When a pig is born it’s
already deficient in vitamin E
because a minimal amount of
the fat-soluble products that
contain vitamin E can transfer
through the placenta of the sow
during pregnancy,” Mahan said.
“After birth, the young pigs get
their vitamin E from the
colostrum and milk of the sow. If
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Extra Vitamin E Helps Young Pigs Survive Weaning
the sow has low body stores or is
fed low dietary levels of vitamin
E, then the young pig also will
be low in vitamin E when it is
removed from the sow during
weaning.”
The blood and tissue vitamin
E concentrations of pigs decline
fairly dramatically during wean
ing, so that is the phase where a
pig is most susceptible to vita
min E deficiency problems, he
said. About 2 percent of young
pigs die during this postweaning
period because of low levels of
vitamin E received from the sow
or selenium an element that
serves a similar purpose as vita
min E in a pig’s body.
Mahan and other Ohio State
University researchers have
studied the effects of vitamin R
and selenium deficiencies in
pigs for nearly 10 years. He,
Ohio State postdoctoral student
Ivan Moreira, and Ohio State
graduate research associates
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San Ching and Ted Wiseman
recently began looking at ways
to correct low vitamin E levels in
young weaned pigs.
Wiseman presented the
results of their research at the
American Society of Animal
Science and American Dairy
Science Association Midwest
Sectional meeting in Des
Moines, lowa, March 15-17.
“We decided to correct the
problem by adding vitamin E to
the diets or drinking water of
two-week-old weaned pigs,”
Mahan said. “Previous research
showed that when vitamin E is
added to a diet, the serum val
ues of vitamin E in a pig’s blood
did not increase much until a
couple weeks after weaning. So
we decided to add various
grades of vitamin E up to some
very high levels to see what
amount of vitamin E added to
the diet or drinking water would
raise vitamin E blood serum up
to its necessary level within a
* _ »
Pig-
The National Research
A T^Ty
Council recommends a pig’s diet
contain 16 international units
(IU) of vitamin E per kilogram
(kg) of diet. The dietary levels
the Ohio State researchers stud
ied were 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100,
150 and 200 IU per kg of feed.
They found it took almost 80 IU
per kg of vitamin E in the
weaned pigs’ diets to get blood
serum values that would pre
vent a deficiency.
For drinking water, increases
of 0,55,110, 220 and 440 IU per
liter of water were studied. It
took the addition of almost 100
IU per liter of water to get good
vitamin E blood serum values,
Mahan said.
“We looked at drinking water
because even though a pig may
not be eating well, generally it
will always consume water,” he
said. “The diet and drinking
water values we found that
resulted in appropriate vitamin
E blood serum levels were both
much higher than what the
NRC has established for dietary
requirements.”
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New Hope, PA 18938
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Mam Street
Intercourse, PA 17534
717-768-8231
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East Mam Street
McAlisterville, PA 17049
717-463-2191
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RR 2 Box 212
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215-257-5177
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Feed companies could use
this information to increase the
amount of Vitamin E added to
their products, Mahan said. It
could help veterinarians who
recommend injections and sug
gest feed requirements to pro
ducers. Producers also could add
vitamin E to the drinking water
of their young pigs if they sus
pect a vitamin E deficiency.
All grains fed to pigs general
ly have a low vitamin E content,
so finding animals low in vita
min E can be common, he said.
Vitamin E is found in the oil of
feed crops, so soybeans general
ly have higher levels of the vita
min. But, vitamin E can be
destroyed easily when exposed
to air, reducing effective levels
in feeds.
The Ohio State University
research was partially spon
sored by BASF, a vitamin manu
facturer.
For more information about
vitamin E and its effects on pigs,
interested people should contact
Mahan at (614) 292-6987.
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R 7 Box 405
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717-949-6501
1950 Fruitville Pike
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717-569-2500
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610-696-2990
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610-927-6277
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610-593-2407
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717-263-8424
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609-561-0141
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