Minnesota Farm Guide: Leading Farm Newspaper

Farrowing operators gained access to a new product earlier this year designed to help poor-doing pigs.

The product is called First Pulse D, a milk-based refined colostrum product designed to stimulate appetite and the immune system.

Ralco Nutrition, Inc., of Marshall, Minn., developed and is marketing First Pulse D. Dairy colostrum is concentrated, and then other ingredients, like Ralco's Regano, are added.

“For a pig short of colostrum, our product provides those pigs with what they need,” said Jeff Knott, Ph.D., Ralco Nutrition swine technical sales and research nutritionist.

First Pulse D is needed in part, because the number of live piglets born in each litter is increasing. Good genetics, nutrition and swine husbandry have increased the litter size.

Knott works with some producers who are consistently seeing 12 pigs born alive per litter.

The challenge is getting all of those piglets to a weaning weight of at least 8 pounds, and preferably closer to 12 pounds. It starts with getting some colostrum into every pig shortly after birth.

“We see higher incidences of pre-weaning mortality, fall back pigs and low viability pigs, and a lot of that goes back to a lack of colostrum in those pigs immediately after birth,” said Knott.

Small, sluggish or weak piglets often have a tough time competing with larger piglets for access to the sow's udder and colostrum. More pigs per litter also means there is less colostrum available per pig.

Scientists at Ral-co Nutrition are finding good success giving First Pulse D to those piglets more at risk.

They will soon be officially reporting on an important study conducted during the summer of 2007. A Ralco Nutrition summer intern conducted extensive studies at a 1,600 sow farrowing unit involving First Pulse D.

“We have good statistical results that giving First Pulse D improved average daily gain and weaning weights of opportunity pigs,” said Knott.

Determined through blood tests, the piglets that received First Pulse D had a working immune system. Comparable piglets that did not receive First Pulse D were immune-compromised.

“What's the best way to use the product? It's the bottom one or two pigs of every litter - those opportunity pigs, small pigs, or the last born pigs of every litter - in order to trigger their immune system so that it responds like a pig that received a full dose of colostrum,” said Knott.

Ralco Nutrition began as a premix company in the 1970s. The company first offered Sila-Mix and Suppli-Mix premixes for the bovine and swine industries.

Today, the company offers a wide range of formula premixes and specialty product technologies for swine, beef, dairy, sheep, goats, horses, poultry and exotic animal species.

“The company started with the thought process that we were going to lose the ability to feed drugs and antibiotics to livestock,” said Pete Merna, Ralco national marketing manager. “We still hold true to that philosophy today. We're not anti-antibiotics, but if we can push towards neutraceutical-type products or nutrients that stimulate the immune system, then that's what we want to do.”

The company was looking for a pig starter that was free of meat or bone meal. Colostrum is the “natural pig starter,” so Ralco Nutrition looked for ways to incorporate the “first milk.”

Colostrum contains large immuno-globulin molecules that will only be absorbed in the digestive system during the first 24-36 hours after birth. But colostrum also contains other good qualities that can benefit older animals, Knott said. The company uses the non-immuno-globulin portion of colostrum to make First Pulse D.

“We have found in colostrum there are many factors that are as important or more important than immuno-globulins,” said Russell Fent, Ph.D., Ralco swine technical nutritionist. “There are a lot of growth factors and things that help the pig in terms of appetite stimulation.”

Those factors include bio-active peptides and nucleotides that tell the immune system to start developing, Fent said.

Ralco scientists determined that just a one-time drench (squirted into the piglet's mouth) of 2 ml/piglet has been enough to get little piglets going. The piglets also received at least a small amount of colostrum from their dams.

First Pulse D has small molecules that make it possible for the piglet - or even other species or older pigs - to absorb the proteins through the stomach and upper intestinal tract, Ralco nutritionists say.

Fent and Knott said that Ralco has a long history of saving opportunity pigs by using Advanced Birthright milk replacer or Advanced Birthright rearing decks.

“We have continued down this road of developing a product that we feel takes the best part of colostrum in a concentrated dose and provides the biological response we are looking for in the pig,” said Fent.

Ralco Nutrition recently released a paper entitled “Colostrum management for the neonatal pig.” According to its author, Rafael Cabrera of Ralco Nutrition, piglet mortality during the lactation period remains very high - 12 percent globally.

Operations can often bring mortality rates down, he said. At one operation in Latin America that Cabrera visited, newborn piglets are individually dried and placed under a light for further drying.

During the first 24 hours, a farrowing person grabs each piglet individually and makes sure it has received colostrum. Each piglet is checked twice the first day. This operation has a 2.5-4 percent pre-wean mortality.

A large operation in Mexico has a pre-wean mortality rate of 5-7 percent, Cabrera continued. In this operation, workers collect colostrum from second parity sows and older. Newborn pigs consume the colostrum the same day. Every piglet gets “two squirts” of collected colostrum during the processing period.

First Pulse D, with a dose costing about 25 cents, is given to the smallest pigs that will be taken from sows and raised on decks.

“First Pulse D is a great source of bovine colostrum; however, it is not intended to be used as a replacement for sow's colostrum,” said Cabrera. “Porcine colostrum is higher than bovine colostrum in dry matter (25 percent vs. 20 percent wet weight) and total protein (16 percent vs. 9 percent wet weight.)”

Fent and Knott pointed out that few U.S. hog operations will take the time to milk sows for colostrum. For those smallest pigs that will be raised using milk replacer, First Pulse D could help to boost their young immune systems and increase their appetite.

“When you give this product, it gives them an almost instant burst of energy,” said Fent. “It turns on their appetite, stimulates the immune system, and increases viability to result in a full value pig.”

For more information on First Pulse D, visit http://www.ralconutrition.com.