FLAVOLAC® Enhances Milk Production, Casein Content, and Litter Growth Performance in Lactating Sows

With the increasing prolificacy of modern sows, the primary challenges during lactation involve ensuring adequate feed intake, minimizing excessive body mobilization, reducing metabolic, oxidative, and immunological stress, and maximizing milk yield and composition to support large litters without compromising sow productivity and longevity. FLAVOLAC® (Agroceres Multimix, Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil) is a feed additive containing functional amino acids, antioxidants, botanicals, direct-fed microbials, and vitamin-like compounds with immunomodulatory properties. Previous studies have reported improved sow performance, milk yield, and piglet growth with FLAVOLAC® supplementation, but its effects on milk composition remain unknown. This study evaluated farrowing performance, milk composition, and litter growth of lactating sows supplemented with FLAVOLAC®. The trial was conducted on a commercial farm (Granja Paraíso, Minas Gerais, Brazil) using 69 PIC 1050 females (parities 1–7) distributed in a randomized block design, with parity class (primiparous or multiparous) as the blocking factor. Treatments were: T1 = control (basal lactation diet + 80 g/day ground corn, top-dressed once daily) and T2 = basal lactation diet + 80 g/day FLAVOLAC®, top-dressed once daily. Supplementation started 24 h post-farrowing (after cross-fostering) and continued until weaning (average 22 d). Milk samples were collected at d 14 of lactation for composition analysis. There were no differences in sow body weight at farrowing or weaning, but FLAVOLAC®-supplemented sows tended to mobilize less body tissue (P = 0.086), likely due to higher feed intake (P = 0.001). FLAVOLAC® supplemented sows showed greater milk yield, estimated according to Noblet and Etienne (1989) (P = 0.001), and higher milk casein content (P < 0.001). As a result, a greater number of piglets were weaned per sow (P = 0.011), and piglets from supplemented sows had higher weaning weights (P = 0.032) and improved average daily gain (P = 0.023). In addition, these litters had higher overall weaning weight (P = 0.002), greater average gain (P < 0.001), and lower pre-weaning mortality and removals (P = 0.012). FLAVOLAC® supplementation during lactation enhanced sow feed intake, milk yield, and milk casein content, improving litter performance and survival. These results demonstrate the benefits of including FLAVOLAC® in lactation diets for modern hyperprolific sows, supporting improved milk composition, greater piglet growth, and reduced mortality under commercial production conditions.