Korean Journal of Agricultural Science ISSN:2466-2402(Print) 2466-2410(Online) 농업과학연구

A total of twenty-four multiparous sows (Landrace × Yorkshire) and their litters were used in this 21-day experimental trial. Based on their body weight, sows were randomly allocated into one of three treatments with eight replicates. The dietary betaine supplementation contained three levels: (i) CON (Basal diet + 0% Bet), (ii) Bet 0.05% (CON + 0.05% Betaine), and (iii) Bet 0.15% (CON + 0.15% Betaine). The supplementation of betaine had no effect (p > 0.05) on body weight and feed intake of lactating sow. Moreover, no significant response was observed on backfat thickness, body condition score, and weaning of the estrus interval with the dietary supplementation of betaine. In addition, the litter weaning weight, litter weight gain, average litter daily gain, and survivability rate at birth showed no significant difference with the dietary betaine supplementation of the sow diet. Fecal scores of the lactating sows and suckling piglets were not affected (p > 0.05) with the dietary betaine supplementation compared with the control diet during the experimental periods. The findings of this study showed that betaine supplementation does not boost growth performance, feed intake, body conditions, and fecal score in lactating sows and suckling piglets fed a corn-soybean mealbased diet.