Offspring of sows fed Bt maize had improved growth
throughout their productive life compared with offspring
of sows fed isogenic maize, regardless of the maize line
fed between weaning and harvest. This was not thought
to be a result of differing diet composition, as similar nutrient
content was found for the Bt and isogenic maize
diets fed to sows (Walsh et al., 2012b). Our study was
not designed to examine reproductive performance and,
therefore, lacked the statistical power needed to make
defi nitive conclusions regarding this aspect. Despite this,
the average number of piglets born from sows fed Bt
maize was numerically greater than sows fed the isogenic
maize (total born, 15.8 and 12.7 piglets, respectively;
live born, 14.3 and 11.8 piglets, respectively) and this
resulted in a numerically lighterbirth weight for offspring
from Bt maize-fed sows compared with offspring of isogenic
maize-fed sows (1.33 and 1.45 kg, respectively;
Walsh et al., 2012b).