Iron deficiency anemia in piglets and molecular mechanisms involved in iron metabolism: A review

Abstract

Iron deficient anemia (IDA) is the major cause of death of piglets in swine industry. Newborn piglets suffer from iron deficiency anemia (IDA) after few days of birth. During birth, piglets possess approximately 50 mg of iron store which gets exhausted very quickly as the daily iron requirement is 7-15 mg. In addition, sow milk is deficient in iron and provides minimal quantity of iron to newborn piglets. Therefore, newborn piglets suffer from iron deficiency anemia (IDA) after few days of birth if not supplemented with iron from outside. Intensive rearing makes the condition worse as piglets kept in pens are not in contact with soil. Anemia is the first sign of IDA, and it affects both humans and animals. In swine farms, iron supplementation is given to meet the daily requirement of iron. Single or two doses of intramuscular iron injection is generally practiced to avoid IDA in piglets. Moreover, oral iron supplementation in the form of paste applied to the sow’s udder or in the form of feed supplementation is also practiced. There are various hematological and reticulocyte indices which are generally used for the diagnosis of IDA in piglets. The most commonly used diagnostic approaches are measurement of blood hemoglobin, serum iron, total iron binding capacity, serum ferritin and serum transferrin saturation. The current review deals with different aspects of iron deficiency anemia in piglets and molecular mechanism involved in iron metabolism.