In total, Tonisity R&D has completed seven Tonisity Px studies in China and all the results were combined in this meta-analysis, to evaluate the effects of administering Tonisity Px on piglet weaning weight, pre-weaning mortality and the proportion of full-value pigs at weaning.
We would like to thank Candice Kang (Tonisity Swine Business Manager for China), and consultants Dr. Qingyan Qiao and Dr. E Wayne Johnson of Enable Ag Tech in Beijing for supervising all the studies.
Background
The studies included were performed on farms of various sizes (220-5,000 sows) and various levels of performance. Generally, the genetics were Large White and French Landrace crosses. Milk replacer was not used on any of the farms and creep feed was given to piglets starting at ~10 days of age. A common practice observed on all farms was the culling of pigs below 700-800g. A total of 512 litters were enrolled in this study amounting to 5,596 piglets. The same feeding plan was applied to all the studies, as outlined in the diagram to the right.
Feeding Tonisity Px from days two to eight and for three days pre-weaning resulted in:
- 360g extra weaning weight (Control=5.62kg vs TPX=5.98kg; P<0.0001)
- Uniform effect across seven studies (N=5,296 piglets)
- Homogenous effect across the entire pig population
- Reliable and uniform effect on: and reports
- poor, average and high-performing farms
- high and low-health farms
- gilts and older sows
- small (<9 piglets/litter) and large (>12 piglets/litter) litters
- 9% more full-value pigs at weaning – 29% less fall-behinds (P<0.0001)
- 17% less pre-weaning mortality (P=0.15)
- Tonisity Px is not only for runts – the observed improvements occurredin a heavier-than-normal pig population, where the runts (<700-800g; ~3% of the population) had been culled at birth
- An extra 32,552 full-value piglets could be produced over the course of one year across the seven farms
