Effect of Exogenous Progesterone on Growth Rate of Large White Piglets in a Humid Environment

Abstract

A total of 48 large white piglets were used in an experiment to investigate the use of exogenous progesterone on growth of pigs. The pigs were randomly selected as day old piglets and balanced for weight with equal number for each sex. The grouping was into two (2) for progesterone injection (test group) or blank injection (control group) with corn oil as the vehicle. Injections were administered intra muscularly based on live weight once weekly for 24 weeks. The dose rate was 1.0mg progesterone per kg body weight. The parameters measured include weight gain (TWG), average daily gain (ADG), average feed intake (ADFI) and feed conversion ratio(FCR) was calculated.  The results obtained showed that exogenous progesterone increased weight gain significantly (p<0.05) in both sexes than their respective controls. The same trend of result were observed for feed intake and feed conversion. Exogenous progesterone also indicated pronounced sex effect on the pigs in this study with males having significantly (p<0.05) higher values than females. It can be concluded from this study that exogenous progesterone can be used to accelerate growth thereby finishing the pigs early.

Keywords: exogenous, progesterone, pigs, humid