Danish team see benefits from feeding piglets starch heavy milk replacers pre-weaning

A recently published study by Danish researchers showed milk replacer with high levels of starch – wheat flour - could potentially increase piglets’ feed intake and also mature those animals' small intestines prior to weaning. Breeding for hyperprolificacy has resulted in sows that produce increasingly large litters, with a lower average birth weight and more piglets than the sow can naturally rear, said the researchers, based at the University of Copenhagen and SEGES. This tendency increases the need for alternative management systems to meet the nutritional requirements of the piglets such as milk replacer or liquid feed systems as a supplement to sow milk, given to piglets either manually or dispensed automatically in a cup system, according to the paper, published in the British Journal of Nutrition​​. Preparing the pig’s gut for the transitional period of weaning - going from a diet of milk solids to vegetable ingredients - is an increasingly pertinent issue, said the ...