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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.
Weaning is one of the most stressful times in a pig’s life. Not only does it mean big changes in social, thermal and physical environment, but it also means a huge change in diet form and composition. As a result, piglets often suffer from poor nutrient intakes and performance during this initial period following weaning, until they are able to make the necessary adjustments. To reduce stress during this period, many different techniques, including the development of special pre and...
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The current situation on the world feed market shows increasing feed prices. Not only milk by-products are steady increasing in price. Corn prices are rising too. Raw material prices will affect more and more the profitability of animal husbandry. In future attention must be concentrated on...
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Amino acids and healthy nutrition solutions - Evonik Animal Nutrition
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If sows are heat-stressed their daily feed intake decreases to decrease heat production. The reduced feed intake can result in increased tissue loss from the sow, lower piglet weaning weights, and possibly higher mortality rates (Spencer et al., 2003). Early weaning and use of milk replacer may alleviate these effects (Ratliff et al., 2004), and milk replacer may also decrease piglet weight variation at weaning (Wolter et al., 2002). Spencer et al. (2003) researched the effects of...
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New generation E. Coli phytases, the latest in thermoprotection technology, enzyme solutions to optimise both piglet and grower/finisher performance and the use of enzymes in antibiotic growth promoter free nutrition were just some of the recent advances in enzyme technology reported by Dr Gary Partridge at the Pig Focus Asia conference, Bangkok, Thailand. Presenting a paper entitled "Profitable use of new enzymes", Dr Gary Partridge, Technical Services Director for...
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Distillers dried grains and bread or cookie waste products can be used for feed, nutritionist says. If soybean and corn-based feeds get too expensive, livestock producers can always turn to leftovers. Hans Stein, a University of Illinois Extension swine nutritionist who speaked at the Illinois Pork Expo at the Peoria Civic Center, said the leftovers he's talking about may be available at different locations around the state. Stein...
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Alberta Agriculture and Food says variable quality remains a key obstacle to increasing the inclusion of co-products from ethanol production in swine diets. With the increased emphasis on the use of grain based ethanol as fuel, distillers dried grains are becoming more readily available for inclusion in livestock rations. Pork research scientist Dr. Eduardo Beltranena says overheating or over drying of these co-products will significantly affect quality. "Lysine and...
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Impact of antibiotic reduction strategies in swine health management
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With the EU ban on the use of four antibiotic feed supplements and the phasing out of the quinoxaline derivatives carbadox and olaquindox in 1999, a substitute for the so-called growth promoters must be found for the entire field of animal husbandry. The situation is made all the more important in Germany by the continuing decline in prices on the pig market. In part as a consequence of this, many commercial piggeries want to move to a shorter three-week suckling period in order to produce...
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Biodiesel production yields coproducts that can be useful for a variety of agricultural operations. The director of the Iowa Pork Industry Center (IPIC) at Iowa State University, John Mabry, said a new fact sheet on one such coproduct, crude glycerol, provides answers to some commonly asked questions about its potential as a swine diet component. "’Crude Glycerol' is the second in the publication series called 'Feeding Bioenergy Coproducts to Swine,'" Mabry said. "The...
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It is imperative that we find new technologies to reduce the amount of feed resources needed to produce pork. The need is made more acute by the growing societal concern about routine use of antibiotics in livestock feeds. If we are to produce pork without the routine use of antibiotics in feed, we must change some things. The most important changes will be in production systems, sanitation and biosecurity. However, these changes should be supplemented with targeted methods for influencing the...
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Swine research funded in part by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) indicates that inulin—a complex carbohydrate found in many plants worldwide—may help people absorb more iron from fruits, vegetables and grains. This finding by ARS plant physiologist Ross Welch and his colleagues could provide key support in the worldwide fight against iron deficiency. Iron is needed to form hemoglobin, which transports oxygen in the blood. Welch, who works at the U.S. Plant, Soil...
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Researchers with the University of Alberta are encouraging swine producers include as much of the byproducts of ethanol production in as possible when formulating rations but to keep a close watch on the quality of those ingredients. In an effort to curb the rising cost of feed, livestock producers in western Canada have made significant adjustments to their ration formulations, including increasing the amount of distillers dried grains, a coproduct of ethanol production, in their...
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Approximately two billion tonnes of cereal grains and 140 million tonnes of legumes and oilseeds are produced annually throughout the world. This production is associated with an estimated 230 million tonnes of fibrous material as part of a variety of by-products. In addition, the ‘dietary fibre’ contained within cereals and legumes is used inefficiently by the intensive livestock industries. At present, enzyme supplements are used extensively in wheatand barley-based diets for poultry,...
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Amino acids and healthy nutrition solutions - Evonik Animal Nutrition
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Post-weaning diarrhoea is a major problem of the pig industry. In some instances, infected piglets will die but in most cases there is a reduction in the efficiency of digestion and the absorption of nutrients. This causes a decrease in growth rate from which the pig may never fully recover. As a result, the time taken to reach market weight can be significantly increased. The increase in mortality rates and decrease in growth has a major influence on profitability. Zinc oxide (ZnO) has...
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The two to three weeks after weaning are a difficult period in the piglet’s life. During this time the piglet is exposed to tremendous stress mainly due to an abrupt change from milk to a dry, vegetable-based diet. This change in diet results in a low feed intake and leads to changes in digestion and intestinal morphology. Shortening of the intestinal villi and deepening of the crypts have been observed in piglets post-weaning (Nabuurs et al., 1993). Those changes in intestinal...
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Vitamin E (α-tocopherol) is a critically important nutrient for all confinement-reared swine. It is a primary dietary antioxidant that maintains cell membrane integrity and also enhances humoral- and cell-mediated immunity. Other metabolic roles have been reviewed by Brigelius-Flohe and Traber (1999). Vitamin E is not synthesized in the body, thus all swine require dietary sources to meet metabolic needs. Serum alpha-tocopherol level is the method utilized to measure vitamin E...
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Recent lower prices in dried distillers grains with solubles suggest producers may want to take a second look at dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) for swine rations, a Kansas State University animal scientist said. "In the past, we have been very cautious about the addition of DDGS, based on the high cost of DDGS, relative to corn prices here in Kansas," said Mike Tokach, swine specialist with K-State Research and Extension. "In addition, there has...
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Impact of antibiotic reduction strategies in swine health management
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Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element for animal nutrition. Organic forms of selenium are recognized as more bioavailable than inorganic forms (Daniels, 1996) for most species including pigs (Mahan and Peters, 2004; Fortier and Matte, 2006). In a recent study (Fortier and Matte, 2006), we have shown that the improved selenium status of sows via supplementation with organic selenium (0.3 ppm Se as Sel-Plex® selenium yeast) has drastic consequences for embryos. In early gestation, selenium...
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The swine industry continues to move to earlier weaning. This trend is driven by economic factors such as improving the number of pigs per sow per year and the need to minimize the capital cost of farrowing facilities by moving more sows through the facilities. Tremendous strides have been made in improving performance in early-weaned pigs in the last decade. Several factors, including larger pigs at weaning, better nursery facilities and management as well as improved feeding programs,...
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The pig industry has a rich supply of feed ingredients and feed additives that are purported to have physiological effects on the pig, and thereby improve growth performance and/or protect the pig from diseases. Unfortunately, most of them have not been adequately evaluated, either at the level of physiological effect or at the level of economically important measures of performance. Interest in these products is justified under any circumstance, but will intensify as concern about antibiotic...
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The increased price for milk and milk products doesn't only affect consumers, but pork producers as well, said a Purdue University expert. A significant portion of a nursery pig's diet consists of lactose. Last year lactose prices were 30 cents a pound, and now prices have nearly tripled to 85 cents a pound. "This creates a challenge for swine nutritionists and producers to meet the animal's needs and keep diets economical," said Brian Richert, Purdue Extension...
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