Orally drenching dextrose to sows at onset of farrowing does not improve piglet viability or survival

Between 5 and 10% of piglets die due to asphyxiation during birth. It has been proposed that the energy status of sows affects stillbirth incidence, with farrowing duration increasing as the time between feeding and parturition onset increases. The current study investigated whether maternal dextrose supplementation would increase energy available to the sow to promote uterine contractions for optimal piglet delivery and, thus, reduce stillbirth rate. Multiparous sows (n = 74) were allocated to one of three treatment groups: control; no treatment given, water; 175 mL water with sugar-free flavour additive, and dextrose; 100 g dextrose dissolved in 175 mL water. Water and dextrose treatments were administered orally, immediately after the birth of the first piglet. Farrowing duration, inter-piglet birth intervals, meconium stain score, birth weight, 24 h weight and latency to stand and suck were recorded. Serum samples were taken from piglets at 24 h for immunoglobulin G analysis. Blood glucose was measured in a subset of sows (n = 34) at 30 min intervals during farrowing. There was no effect of dextrose supplementation on sow blood glucose, farrowing duration or stillbirth incidence. However, dextrose sows tended to have longer inter-piglet birth intervals than control and water sows. Dextrose treatment had no effect on piglet meconium score or time to stand, but did increase time to suck compared with control and water groups. Birth litter weights tended to be lowest in the dextrose group. There was no difference in piglet serum IgG levels between treatments. These findings suggest that oral dextrose supplementation does not improve the progression of parturition or improve stillbirth rate and piglet viability at birth.