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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
BIORETENTION COLUMN STUDY: FECAL COLIFORM AND TOTAL SUSPENDED SOLIDS REDUCTIONS
Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2007 | No Comments
Nitrogen balances at the crop and farm-gate scale in livestock farms in Italy
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Managing Nitrogen Contaminated Soils: Benefits of N2–Fixing Alfalfa
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Nutritional and environmental consequences of dietary fibre in pig nutrition: a review
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The second half of the XXth century has seen a sharp increase of the world pork (Sus scrofa) production, which reaches nowadays a herd of 964 million pigs (FAO, 2006). Intensification of the rearing techniques, breeding programs and genetic progresses has resulted in lower production costs. However, intensive production systems have caused nitrate leaching and phosphorus accumulation in the soils receiving pig manure. These systems also induced animal welfare concerns such as stereotypies in gestating sows and human health problems such as the development of a gut microflora resistant to antibiotics (Manero et al., 2006). All these issues seriously question the social and environmental sustainability of intensive pig production (Basset-Mens et al., 2005). During the last 15 years, different solutions have been proposed to cope with these problems. Efforts have been spent to formulate diets that better meet the pig’s requirements or contribute to reduce odour and pollutant excretion. In particular, attention is paid to dietary fibre (DF), for its capacity to reduce ammonia emission (Nahm, 2003; Aarnink et al., 2007) and to improve gut health (Williams et al., 2001; Montagne et al., 2003) and pig welfare (Meunier-Salaun, 1999; Courboulay et al., 2001).
Increasing fibrous ingredients provided by the food industry are now incorporated in rations for pigs, despite the negative impact of DF on performances due to lower digestibility of dietary energy and protein (Noblet et al., 2001) and fatter carcasses. The use of forages, rich in DF, is also envisaged in more extensive systems such as herbage in outdoor production systems (Rivera Ferre et al., 2001; Blair, 2007) or in tropical countries where alternative feeding systems are studied, developed and extended (Pérez, 1997; Leterme et al., 2007) because grains are needed for human consumption. The present review examines the influence of DF fermentation in the pig intestines on the digestive processes. Their consequences on pig protein and energy nutrition, health concerns and environmental issues in intensified and in more extensive tropical production systems are also discussed. Dietary fibre is defined as the plant polysaccharides that are resistant to digestive secretions and are potentially available for bacterial fermentation in the intestines of single-stomached animals. Resistant starch is also considered as a dietary fibre. The short-chain fatty acids released by bacteria contribute to the host energy supply and both regulate the composition of the flora and the growth of epithelial cells, especially in the case of butyrate. The bacterial growth supported by the fermentation induces a shift of N excretion from urine to faeces. Beside the fermentability, the physical properties of dietary fibre such as the water-holding capacity, the viscosity and the solubility influence the digestion, the satiety and the transit time. In relationship with the mechanisms of dietary fibre interaction with the digestive processes exposed in this review, the opportunities and treats of dietary fibre inclusion in swine rations for intensified and for more extensive tropical production systems are discussed. Dietary fibre is indeed a possible means to reduce nitrogen losses of production units and to improve pig intestinal health and animal welfare. Finally, the potential role of in vitro fermentation methods to investigate the fate of dietary fibre in the digestive system is discussed.
Nutrition, key factor to reduce environmental load from pig production
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Gaseous Emissions (NH3, N2O, CH4 and CO2) from the aerobic treatment of piggery slurry—Comparison with a conventional storage system
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Gaseous emissions from biological aerobic treatment (using an intermittent aeration) were
compared with traditional manure management (based on 6 months storage before
spreading). The results show a large decrease
of the greenhouse gases (methane and nitrous oxide) and ammonia (NH3) when a biological
treatment is compared to using storage alone.
Supplementing corn or corn–barley diets with an E. coli derived phytase decreases total and soluble P output by weanling and growing pigs
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The efficacy of an E. coli derived phytase on phosphorus (P) digestibility and excretion, on the form of the P excreted, and the optimal dietary calcium (Ca):P ratio was examined.
In experiment 1, 63 barrows (40.4 ± 1.9 kg) were assigned to receive one of 21 treatments arranged as a 3 × 7 factorial. Treatments consisted of three Ca levels (0.50, 0.60 and 0.70%) and seven phytase treatments [0, 250, 500, 1000 and 2000 FTU kg–1 of an E. coli-derived phytase and 500 FTU kg 1 of an A. niger phytase added to a P deficient (0.37% P) diet or 0 FTU phytase kg–1 added to a P adequate (0.53% P) diet].
In experiment 2, 144 pigs (6.52 ± 0.75 kg), received a P adequate (0.60% P) diet or a P deficient (0.44% P) diet supplemented with 0, 250, 500, 1000 or 2000 FTU phytase kg–1 for a 28-d trial. A subset of 36 barrows was then fed the same diets in a balance trial.
In experiment 3, 36 barrows (7.1 ± 0.75 kg) were assigned to one of six treatments arranged as a 2 × 3 factorial (0 or 500 FTU of phytase kg–1; 1.0, 1.6 or 2.2 Ca:P ratio).
In experiment 1, P digestibility improved from 21 to 54% with increasing phytase (quadratic; P < 0.05). Supplementing the diet with 500 FTU phytase kg–1 decreased the output of total and soluble P by 25% in experiment 2 and to a similar extent in experiment 3 at the lowest Ca:P ratio (P < 0.05).
The effect of phytase on total P digestibility was mitigated as the dietary Ca:P ratio increased in exp. 3. Supplementation of swine diets with an E. coli derived phytase decreases output of total and soluble forms of P, but this effect is reduced at high dietary Ca:P ratios.
Reducing Energy Costs in Swine Barns
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Swine production involves energy intensive tasks. With increasing energy prices, reducing energy use is imperative to reduce overall cost of production in swine operations. The goals of the current phases of this study are to gather benchmark information on current energy usage in swine barns, to conduct energy audits to document energy use practices in various types of swine barns, and to evaluate different applicable energy-saving measures using computer simulation. Twenty-eight (28) different swine facilities participated in the energy survey conducted in February 2007. From each barn, information was obtained on barn energy use and pig production numbers over the past 3 years. Based on the results of the survey, four barns were selected on which an energy audit and detailed energy use monitoring were conducted. Two of the barns were among the highest energy users (per animal) and the other two were among those that used the least energy per animal. Results of the survey and energy audits showed that within each barn type, some barns used significantly higher energy than the overall mean for all barns of the same type while others used substantially less than the mean, indicating that there are significant opportunities for improving energy use practices in some barns to reduce overall energy costs. Understanding the patterns of how energy is utilized in each barn is valuable in determining energy conservation strategies that would work best for each particular operation. The outcome of this project is expected to help guide pork producers in managing the use of energy in their operations more efficiently, thereby reducing overall energy costs. The next step would be to use computer simulation to evaluate different energy saving measures and to quantify the reduction in energy costs that can be achieved from implementation of these strategies.