Implementing drinking water feed additives strategies in post-weaning piglets: Case Study

Weaned piglets suffer many stressors such as sudden change of feed, change of pigs groups and passive protection decrease with ageing. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the inclusion of a free and buffered organic acids blend (OAs) to drinking water (DW) of weaned pigs on performance in presence or absence of medication to control enteric disease.

One-hundred and forty (140) pigs in a conventional herd were allocated after weaning to one of three treatments and monitored during 4 weeks: group (1) Control full medication (FM) (Amoxycillin trihydrate (AT) 870 mg/g – 0.46 kg/t (400 ppm) & Neomycin sulfate (NS) 600 mg/g – 0.5 kg/t (300 ppm) in feed), group (2) OAs blend + FM (2 L/1,000 L OAs DW + AT&NS), group (3) OAs + reduced medication (OAs DW + AT). Pigs were weighed individually on a weekly basis to determine average daily gain (ADG). Feed intake (ADFI) and water consumption (WC) was recorded at group level.

Average daily gain (g/day) in the different groups were at week 4; (1) 0.228a, (2) 0.238a, (3) 0.265b (p< 0.001). ADG of the piglets from (3) was significantly higher compared to (1) over 0-2 weeks of the study. Over the 0-4 weeks period (3) treatment was higher compared to control and (2).

The Feed conversion rates (FCR) in the different groups were at week 4; (1) 1.76a, (2) 1.70a, (3) 1.46b (P< 0.001). Thus 0,3 better in (3) than (1).

The Water Consumptions (L/pen) were at week 3 (1) 11.4a, (2) 24.5b, (3) 23.8b (P=0,004), and at week 4, (1) 13.9a, (2) 31.6, (3) 28.4b (p=0,014). Pigs receiving OAs in DW had significantly higher water usage than group (1) in weeks 3 and 4.

The pigs from group (3) tended to grow faster during each week, but the difference was only significant during week 4 (P< 0.001). There was no significant difference in ADFI between treatments. FCR for (3) program improved by 1.0 compared to (1) and (2) in week 1 (P< 0.05), while in week 2 and 3 no significant differences were found. In the fourth week of the study FCR was improved by 0.3 in (3) compared to group (1) (P=0.001). The (3) resulted in significantly better FCR than (1) across the first two weeks of the experiment, and significantly better than (1) and (2) during weeks three and four on accumulative basis.

The group with a blend of free and buffered organic acids (OAs) together with a reduced medication (group 3) had a better ADG and FCR during the nursery period. The better performance may result from the positive effect of OAs on microbial balance in the intestines.

Disclosure of Interest: None Declared.