The Different Roles of Colostrum and Regular Milk in Disease Prevention and Health Care for Piglets
Release time： 2013-05-23
The milk secreted within 36 hours after delivery is called colostrum, while the milk secreted thereafter is referred to as mature milk. Both colostrum and mature milk not only provide piglets with sufficient, complete nutrition but also play a critically important role in disease prevention and health maintenance.
Antibodies in the sow’s blood cannot cross the placenta to enter the fetal body; therefore, piglets are born with virtually no antibodies in their bodies and are in an immunologically “immune gap.” However, colostrum contains large amounts of antibodies that have migrated from the sow’s blood—these are known as maternal antibodies. Although these antibodies are high-molecular-weight proteins, most of them can pass intact across the intestinal wall into the piglet’s bloodstream (IgG), where they exert systemic immune protection against disease. Thus, piglets must consume sufficient colostrum to develop strong disease resistance. The period during which maternal antibodies can be absorbed intact is limited and gradually weakens as time since birth increases; this absorption ceases entirely within a few dozen hours after birth. This cessation of antibody absorption is referred to as “closing the gate.”
Therefore, it’s best to feed colostrum as early as possible. Within 12 hours after birth, piglets can consume 3 to 4 feedings of colostrum, totaling up to 40 milliliters, which enables them to grow healthily. A portion of the antibodies in colostrum—specifically, sIgA—that are not absorbed by the body are known as local antibodies. These local antibodies adhere to the surface of the intestinal mucosa, preventing pathogenic bacteria from invading the gut and thus providing local immune protection against disease. Hence, colostrum plays an extremely important role both in systemic disease resistance and in local disease prevention for piglets. Piglets that fail to receive colostrum at all have great difficulty surviving; those that receive insufficient colostrum or receive it too late exhibit weak disease resistance and are more prone to illness. Only when piglets receive adequate colostrum can their disease resistance be robust, allowing them to grow healthily.
In addition, after piglets are born, certain pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella enter the gastrointestinal tract and rapidly multiply. If piglets fail to consume colostrum promptly, the antibodies in the colostrum will be unable to inhibit the proliferation of these bacteria, potentially leading to illness in the piglets—particularly diarrhea. Therefore, piglets must consume colostrum within 12 hours after birth.
Although the concentration of antibodies in mature milk is much lower than that in colostrum, it still contains a certain amount of antibodies—most of which are local antibodies (sIgA) synthesized by lymphocytes in the mammary glands. These antibodies are not absorbed by the intestine; instead, they adhere to the intestinal mucosa, preventing bacteria from invading the body and thus providing local immune protection against disease. This phenomenon is known as lactational immunity in mature milk. Although there are various causes of diarrhea after weaning, the loss of lactational immunity protection is also an important contributing factor.
Maternally derived antibodies that migrate from colostrum into the blood of piglets decline at a certain rate and typically lose their protective effect by 2 to 3 weeks after birth. At this time, the piglets’ lymphocytes have just begun to mount an active immune response, producing only small amounts of antibodies at low concentrations—insufficient to provide robust protection. Thus, during the transition period between passive immunity conferred by maternal antibodies and active immunity developed by the piglets themselves, there inevitably arises a gap in immune protection. During this critical phase, piglets become highly vulnerable to infections, making it an extremely dangerous period. The duration of this transitional phase is positively correlated with the amount of colostrum consumed; the more colostrum the piglets consume, the shorter this phase will be. To help piglets smoothly navigate this critical period, ensuring they receive an adequate supply of colostrum is the best approach.
Colostrum from sows plays a crucial role in determining piglets’ disease resistance, while the quality of mature milk produced by sows affects the growth rate of piglets in later stages. Therefore, it is essential to enhance the nutrition and regulate intestinal metabolism of sows to improve both the quality and quantity of their colostrum and mature milk. Based on practical experience, starting from the gestation period through weaning, adding 2 kg of Naijiawang and 0.5–1 kg of Weiswan per ton of feed has proven highly effective in boosting the titers of maternal antibodies in colostrum, improving the quality of milk during lactation, enhancing piglets’ immune resistance, and promoting weight gain. The results have been remarkable.
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