Ganho de peso no flushing e desempenho reprodutivo de leitoas

Abstract

Flushing is a nutritional strategy applied to gilts, which is based on providing an ad libitum diet with a high level of energy, in the pre-coverage period, for 14 to 21 days. The objective was to evaluate the influence of weight gain during flushing management on the subsequent reproductive performance of gilts. Thus, the weight gain of 329 females during flushing was evaluated with the use of digital scales, where they were weighed on the date of entry and on the date of coverage. The reproductive performance of females was analyzed according of duration of farrowing, duration of pregnancy, total number of piglets born, number of piglets born alive, number of stillborns and number of mummified piglets. The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design, with three treatments, being sows or piglets used as an experimental unit. The gilts were divided into treatments by weight gain ranges: in the first treatment gain from 0 to 800 g/day, in the second gain from 801 to 1600 g/day and in the third gain from 1601 to 2400 g/day. The weight gain of females during flushing, although different, allowed the females of all treatments to reach satisfactory weights for coverage, which must be at least 135 kg so that the reproductive performance of these females was not compromised, and even in treatment 1 that the gilts had less daily weight gain, reached an average of 147 kg at coverage. Thus, the smaller daily weight gain during flushing (0.800 g/day) did not result in losses in the reproductive performance of the gilts, as long as they reached the appropriate weight for coverage. Therefore, a smaller amount of feed can be offered, without reproductive harm to these gilts, thus reducing feed costs.