Failure of vitamin A to increase litter size in sows receiving injections at various stages of gestation
1999
Pusateri, A.E. | Diekman, M.A. | Singleton, W.L.
To determine the effectiveness of a single injection of vitamin A to increase litter size, 1,375 sows were assigned randomly to 11 treatment groups (125 sows per treatment). Treatments included injection of 1 x 10(6) IU of vitamin A dissolved in corn oil at weaning or on d 0, 2, 6, 10, 13, 19, 30, 70, or 110 after breeding. Sows in the control group were injected with corn oil on corresponding days. A total of 396 sows were removed from the study following treatment or treatment assignment. Therefore, farrowing data were collected for 979 sows. Injection of vitamin A did not influence (P > .10) total litter size, live litter size, litter weight, pig weight, number of runts, or number of mummies. Mean live litter size was 10.1 +/- .1 for all sows that farrowed in the experiment. Parity group affected total litter size, live litter size, live litter weight, and number stillborn (P < .01) but not pig weight, number of runts, number of mummies, or gestation length (P > .10). In this study, a single injection of vitamin A at any time from weaning to farrowing did not increase litter size in sows.
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