Effects of specialty proteins as alternatives to bovine or porcine spray-dried plasma in non-medicated diets fed to weaned pigs housed in an unsanitary environment

Crenshaw, J. D.; Campbell, J. M.; Polo, J.; Stein, H. H.

Performance variables in Exp. 1 did not differ significantly for pigs fed SPC and APP diets. Based on supplier information, the APP product used in Exp. 1 and 2 was produced using a proprietary process to reduce or eliminate anti-nutritional factors and activate components in porcine plasma thus requiring less mass of product to be used in formulations compared with commercial SDP. Published research with APP is limited. The provision of 0.2% APP in feed for mature gilts challenged with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) reduced rectal temperature, PRRSV load (RNA copies/ml) and serum IL-1 and increased serum IL-18, suggesting that APP had immunomodulatory effects that benefit gilts with PRRSV . Improvements in productivity have also been reported for PRRSV positive sows provided 0.5% SDPP in gestation and lactation feed (Campbell et al., 2006) . Another study reported that 0.1% APP in gestation and lactation diets reduced percentage of small pigs at birth and wean to estrus interval of sows, increased weaning weight of pigs, and increased postweaning growth of pigs to the end of the nursery period, while addition of 0.3% APP to nursery diets improved ADG of pigs only during the early post-weaning period . Similar productivity improvements were reported for sows fed lactation diets containing 0.5% SDP (Crenshaw et al., 2007) .