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Swine nutrition
Pigs require a number of essential nutrients to meet their needs for maintenance, growth, reproduction, lactation, and other functions. However, factors such as genetic variation, environment, availability of nutrients in feedstuffs, disease levels, and other stressors may increase the needed level of some nutrients for optimal performance and reproduction.
Swine require six general classes of nutrients: water, carbohydrates, fats, protein (amino acids), minerals, and vitamins. Energy, although not a specific nutrient, is an important nutritional component and is primarily derived from the oxidation of carbohydrates and fats. In addition, amino acids (from protein) that exceed the animal’s requirements for maintenance and tissue protein synthesis provide energy when their carbon skeletons are oxidized. Antibiotics, chemotherapeutic agents, microbial supplements (prebiotics and probiotics), enzymes, and other feed additives are often added to swine diets to increase the rate and efficiency of gain, to improve digestibility, and for other purposes, but they are not considered nutrients.
Pigs require a more concentrated diet and should be fed a less-fibrous feed than cattle, sheep, or horses. As they grow, their nutritional requirements change and the diet should meet their needs in various phases of growth and stages of production.
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Introduction It is estimated that feed comprises up to 75% of livestock production costs, and energy is the greatest single cost of diets in swine (Noblet et al., 1993). Energy yielding substances make up 70 to 90% of dietary DM, and carbons from these compounds are oxidized by the animal to produce energy needed to perform biochemical work, in the form of biosynthesis of protein and lipids, active ion transport and regulation of membrane...
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Watch Christian Lückstädt´s video at Avesui 2013
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Introduction
Infection is known to reduce the productive performance of animals. Pathogen-induce immune activation causes fever and reduces protein synthesis rates in skeletal muscle among other symptoms. In the gut, pathogens can cause diarrhea but its effect on nutrient digestibility is unknown. Our objective was to quantify dynamic changes in amino acid (AA) digestibility and endogenous nitrogen losses (ENL) during...
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Veterinary APIs Market Update: Price Trends & Key Insights – February 2025
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With costs of pig production under mounting pressure, the nutrition of pigs is of increasing interest, as this is critical to their subsequent performance through to market. Sustaining growth rate and optimising feed efficiency at this time are key requirements for economic success.
The application of organic acids and their salts to diets for pigs has been...
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Introduction
Previous research has reported that spray-dried plasma fed to lactating sows during summer months increased pig weight at weaning 1 and when included only in gestation feed, spray-dried plasma increased birth and weaning weight of pigs from primiparous sows 2 . The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of 0.5% spray-dried plasma in gestation and lactation diets for...
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ABSTRACT Diet formulation and feeding strategies may be used to boost the pigs´ immune system and reduce the negative impact of weaning. Post-weaning diarrhea can be reduced or prevented by feeding diets that have low concentrations of crude protein. Such diets may supply fewer amino acids than recommended and pig growth rate may be reduced, but if pigs are provided a diet with a normal or elevated...
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INTRODUCTION Antibiotics have been successfully used in animal production since their discovery for maintaining health and improving performance. However, the risk of bacteria acquiring resistance to specific antibiotics and antibiotic residues in meat led to a ban of antibiotics as growth promoters in European Union (EU) since January 2006. With increasing pressures of antibiotic resistance and food safety concerns, acceptance for the use of...
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INTRODUCTION Ractopamine hydrochloride (RAC) is an orally active β-adrenergic agonist that is incorporated into feed rations of finishing swine. Numerous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of RAC in improving ADG, feed efficiency, carcass weight, and dressing percentage, and its negligible effects on meat quality (Watkins et al., 1990; Stites et al., 1991; Uttaro et...
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Summary Dietary fatty acids have been shown to be potent mediators of physiological processes related to body composition, brain and cognitive development as well as immune function. There is emerging evidence to suggest that type of fat fed during gestation as well as the relative proportions of different fatty acids in the diet influence these outcomes. More recently, nutritionists have investigated the potential benefits of fatty acids for their...
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Introduction
The incidence of zearalenone (ZEA) contamination in animal feeds is increasing in many countries. Therefore, understanding the biological effects of ZEA in addition to its estrogenic effects in pigs becomes important for hog producers.
Material and Methods
Two experiments (EXP) were conducted to investigate the effects of...
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Conclusion
Claw lesions are an important cause of lameness in sows. Claw lesions that penetrate the corium increase the potential for inflammatory response and are associated with pain, lameness and decreased productivity. Lameness and reproductive failure are two of the most prominent reasons for early removal from the sow herd. Feeding and management to help prevent claw lesions and lameness should begin...
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Veterinary APIs Market Update: Price Trends & Key Insights – February 2025
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Introduction
To estimate energy requirements for growing pigs, information is required about the partitioning of energy intake between body protein deposition (PD), body lipid deposition (LD) and maintenance energy requirements. These aspects are likely to vary between pig genotypes (PG). Metabolizable energy requirements for maintenance (MEm) may be estimated from physical or chemical body composition. The...
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INTRODUCTION
In view of organic livestock farming, Greece has many advantages in comparison to the other European countries, the temperate climate and the wide and rich ecosystems in countryside. For thousands of years, outdoor pig farming has been one of the most important livestock production sectors in Greece. Since the 60s, the introduction of high-yielding pig genotypes,...
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Based on original publication by Bob Thaler and Hans Stein Due to changes in crop rotations, field peas are now more commonly grown in central South Dakota. Depending on variety, they can either be sold for human consumption or fed directly to livestock. Beef producers can bale the entire plant and feed it as a forage to ruminants, and swine producers can use the seed as a protein and energy source. ...
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The most important components of a swine herd health management program appear to be all-in/all-out pig flow, segregated weaning, vaccinations, biosecurity and sanitation. However, these powerful tools are often inadequate and other tools are needed. Antibiotics are also important for protecting pig health, whether delivered through the feed or other routes, but legitimate concerns about antibiotic resistance are bringing pressure on the pig industry to reduce their...
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The most important components of a swine herd health management program appear to be all-in/all-out pig flow, segregated weaning, vaccinations, biosecurity and sanitation. However, these powerful tools are often inadequate and other tools are needed. Antibiotics are also important for protecting pig health....
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Praful Kumar from Ayurvet, talks to Engormix.com about the use of herbal formulation for pig health care at Pig Focus Asia 2010. ...
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How important is adding phosphate to the diets of pigs? Do they not get some of this out of the soil if free range? If free range then the farmer may have applied it at each cropping period and surely there is possibility that a build up of phosphate might be available to the pig. If given to the pig in their diets how long does it take to build up in the soil and what are the effects on the environment or can the pigs use this phosphate in the...
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ABSTRACT The high cost of feed ingredients, the use of non-renewable sources of phosphate and the dramatic increase in the environmental load resulting from the excessive land application of manure are major challenges for the livestock industry. Precision feeding is proposed as an essential approach to improve the utilization of dietary nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients and thus reduce feeding costs and nutrient excretion. Precision...
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