Effect of vegetable fat and artificial flavour additions to sow diets during late gestation and lactation

Twenty-five Large White X Landrace sows and gilts were allotted to 2 dietary treatments for late gestation and lactation. The treatments were a control, maize-soyabean meal diet and a maize-soyabean meal diet supplemented with 4% vegetable fat and flavouring agents and flavour enhancers. There were no significant differences in sow weight changes, sow feed intake or litter and pig weights. Numerical, but not significant, improvement in pig survival rate was recorded for pigs from sows receiving fat-supplemented diets. Equal feed intake by sows from the 2 treatment groups suggests that the flavouring agents in the more energy dense diet may have been of some benefit.