Changes of the glutathione redox system during the weaning transition in piglets, in relation to small intestinal morphology and barrier function

Table 1 Body weights and growth performance of the piglets pre- and post-weaning

	Animals, n	Birth weight, kg	Weaning weight, kg	Final weight, kg	ADG pre-weaning, g/d	ADG post-weaning, g/d	ADFI post-weaning, g/d	FCR post-weaning (ADG/ ADFI)
Birth weight category (Biw)
LBW	90	0.85	4.95	6.64	189	30	145	0.21
NBW	90	1.37	7.14	9.27	266	43	183	0.23
Weaning treatment (WT)
3d3w	60	1.10	6.78^c	8.68^b	287^b	-6^a	182^b	−0.03
3w	60	1.12	5.01^a	6.70^a	198^a	40^b	140^a	0.29
4w	60	1.11	6.35^b	8.49^b	197^a	75^c	168^b	0.45
Day post-weaning (DPW)
d 0	36	1.09	5.98	5.98^x	227	–	–	–
d 2	36	1.09	5.88	5.47^x	223	-203^w	44^w	−4.61^y
d 5	36	1.14	6.20	6.01^x	233	-37^x	107^x	−0.35^yz
d 12	36	1.16	6.13	7.46^y	230	113^y	222^y	0.51^yz
d 28	36	1.08	6.03	14.86^z	226	309^z	444^z	0.70^z
SEM	–	0.01	0.07	0.10	3	5	3	0.34
P-value
BiW		< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	0.163
WT		0.842	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
DPW		0.089	0.634	< 0.001	0.876	< 0.001
BiW×DPW		0.321	0.990	0.012	0.960	0.005
WT×DPW		0.472	0.033	0.037	0.074	< 0.001
BiW×WT		0.989	0.864	0.863	0.101	0.560

Birth weight (BiW), weaning treatment (WT), days post-weaning (DPW), Average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), feed conversion ratio (FCR). Piglets were either weaned at 3 weeks of age (3w), 4 weeks of age (4w), or separated from the sow at 3d of age and fed a milk replacer until weaning at 3w of age (3d3w), and either had a low birth weight or normal birth weight (NBW). ^a,b,c Within column, means without a common superscript differ for the effect of weaning treatment (WT: P ≤ 0.05). ^w,x,y,z Within column, means without a common superscript differ for the effect of days post-weaning (DPW: P ≤ 0.05).

ISSN: 2049-1891