Effects of extracts of Scutellaria baicalensis and Lonicerae Flos on reproductive performance, milk quality and serum indexes in sows and growth performance in suckling piglets

•This is the first study to evaluate the effects of SL on the reproductive performance of sows at two stages of gestation from 80d-107d and weaning from 108d-21d.•The diets with SL improved the colostrum quality, antioxidant function, liver function and immunity of sows.•The diets with SL for sows improved growth performance and immunity of offspring piglets. The study was conducted to investigate the effects of extracts of Scutellaria baicalensis and Lonicerae Flos (SL) on reproductive performance, milk quality and serum indexes in sows and growth performance in suckling piglets. The experiment was adopted a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement design, one factor was the periods of supplementing sows with SL (d 80 ∼ d 107 of gestation & d 108 of gestation ∼ d 21 of lactation), the other factor was SL (0 mg/kg & 1000 mg/kg). Eighty crossbred gestating sows were randomly divided into four treatments, a basal diet (BD) treatment (T1), BD + SL from d 108 of gestation ∼ d 21 of lactation (T2), BD + SL during d 80 ∼ d 107 of gestation (T3), and BD + SL from d 80 of gestation ∼ d 21 of lactation (T4). The results showed that compared with T1, T2 increased piglet average weight, litter weight gain, the protein, whole milk solid (WMS) and non-fat milk solid (NFMS) contents in colostrum, the total protein (TP), globulin (GLB) contents and the catalase (CAT) activity at parturition, the CAT and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) activities on d 14 of lactation (P