Effects of 42 Degree in farrowing sows

• Type of trial: Farm Report
• Location of trial: Thailand – 2021
• Experimented animals: Farrowing sows
• Goal of Report: Assessing the effect of 42 Degree on sows (wellbeing) around farrowing

Product information: 42 Degree is a unique natural botanical product specifically designed for use at elevated body temperature. The product contains specific natural botanical extracts as main ingredients which interact at several points in the inflammation cascade. The extracts are accompanied by liquid electrolytes and essential amino acids (Lys, Met). It can be positioned in any stress situation, for example:

• During infections
• After vaccination, when severe side reactions appear
• During high ambient temperature along with dehydration
• Highly productive & stressful periods (at weaning, after rehousing, after farrowing, during the lactation period, etc.)

A trial in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at Mahidol University in Thailand with 42 Degree in nursery pigs had previously shown good effects on body weight improvement and reduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines (e. g. IL6).

42 Degree is also antipyretic, as ingredients of the botanicals can block COX-2 pathways, which would normally generate inflammation, pain, and fever. As inflammation induces heat itself, 42 Degree can indirectly reduce the body temperature by above mentioned antipyretic action. A positive side effect of reduced fever might also be an increase in feed intake which can soon after have a positive impact on milk production.

Initial Situation: Due to various outbreaks of ASF on diverse farms in Thailand, it was advised by the Thailand government that the usage of needles for medical applications should be reduced to an absolute minimum to decrease the risk of disease spreading. The normal procedure on sow farms in Thailand provides that for reduction of fever and pain after birth, a sow receives 2 dosages of Tolfenamic Acid (injection on the day of birth and the day after).

Material & Methods:

In this small-scale farm trial, all sows received the same nutritional program and were kept under the same housing conditions. The number of all sows included in the trial was ten.

• 42 Degree Group: N=5 sows
• Tolfenamic Acid Group: N=5 sows

Sow Trial:

• Application period in the 42 Degree Group on five consecutive days – starting from 2 d before farrowing and for 3 d from farrowing onwards
  (mixing 5 ml/sow/day of the product into the feed)
• The sows in the Tolfenamic Acid Group received an injection of Tolfenamic Acid (10 ml/sow intramuscularly) on the day of farrowing and the following day

Body temperature and feed intake were recorded daily for each sow individually (N=10) from the day of farrowing until day 4 postpartum

Results & Conclusion:

• Average Body Temperature (ABT) of the Sows: 42 Degree showed a steady decline of ABT in the sows over the 5 days of measurement after birth, although it is not a medication. ABT were similar on the first day postpartum in both groups of sows. Measurement on the 5^th day showed 0.5°C less ABT in sows of the 42 Degree group compared to Tolfenamic Acid application.

• Average Feed Intake was similar in both groups. In detail, within the individual sows of the 42 Degree group, less deviation than in the Tolfenamic-treated group was shown on day 4 postpartum (deviation between~4-6 kg/sow/d vs. a deviation between 2.5 – 7.5 kg/sow/d; not shown here).

In general, the effect of the product 42 Degree and Tolfenamic Acid on feed intake and fever reduction in the sows postpartum was similar.

Economical evaluation based on the Thailand farmer`s example:

Further, due to the significant lower application costs of 42 Degree, the farmer was able to achieve immense savings. Only the costs for the applied product reduced by over 80% in comparison to costs for Tolfenamic Acid injections.

Note: Savings due to elimination of injection material (syringes and needles), as well as reduction of labour costs and veterinarian fees are not included in this calculation.

Conclusion:

As an in-field result, the farmers experience generally that sows which are receiving 42 Degree show a good appetite, have improved motility through pain reduction and they are easier to handle after birth as they obviously feel more comfortable.

In this trial, the reduction of fever/ increased body temperature in the sows was similar effective as by applying Tolfenamic Acid via injection. Also, the increase of feed intake after birth was similar with both applications.

Under the circumstances that needles for injection have to be reduced by all price, the application of 42 Degree can be especially recommended, as similar effects can be reached compared to the injection of Tolfenamic Acid.

A positive benefit of 42 Degree was also an achieved cost reduction (shown as Savings calculation above) without even taking personal/vet or material cost into this calculation. Nevertheless, it has to be noted that 42 Degree is not a medication, but can rather be seen as part of a supportive concept in order to prevent situations in which pain-relieving medication needs to be applied. It can also counteract negative impacts of heat stress in general, side-effects after vaccination and around/after farrowing.

Addendum: The planning, performance and analysis of university and field trials is a long, expensive and complicated process. Here in XVET, we promote field trials, and we want to generate data for our customers to see the effect of the XVET products on farms all around the world under their respective circumstances in each of these countries.

Sometimes due to organizational limitations, proper trials cannot be performed. In these cases, we offer to share reports generated by our clients, and their experience for their own experiments at farm level with XVET products.