INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF IRON DEXTRAN IN THE PERFORMANCE OF PIGLETS

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out in the Experimental Farm in the County of Felixlândia, Minas Gerais State and had the objective of studying the influence of intramuscular injections of different levels of iron dextran in the development of piglets, evaluated at 21 and 35 days of age. Sixteen litters from Large White sows, from a herd of 120 sows and 8 boars, were used in these experiment. For each treatment it was used 4 litters as it follows: T1 - 100 mg of iron dextran given at the third day of age; T2 - 50 mg of iron dextran given at the third and at the sixth day of age; T3 - 100 mg of iron dextran given at the third and at the 12th day of age; T4 - 50 mg of iron dextran given at the third, sixth, 9th and at the 12th day of age. The treatment 2 had a better result concerning a weight gain whether evaluated at 21 or at 35 days of age. The average weight observed at 35 days showed that treatment 1 and 2 presented better results than the other treatments. The results indicated that 100 mg of iron dextran when injected in only one dose (T1) or in two separate doses were the treatments which got the best results in relation to weight gain, when evaluated at the 35th day of age.