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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:
Alternatives to Antibiotics in Swine Diets: A Molecular Approach
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2005 | No Comments
There is a growing concern in agriculture about the inclusion of antibiotics into animal feeds. This is increasing herd resistance. Unfortunately with a reduction of feed antibiotics comes lowered productivity and increased disease, which often results in more antibiotics. In the past, as price of antibiotics decreased, feed antibiotic inclusion increased. Today, there is the concern of whether antibiotics in animal feed increase human antibiotic resistance. Studies have shown that animals given sub-therapeutic levels of antibiotics in their feed did not show a significant increase in antibiotic resistance over an extended period of time (although the research is debatable). Since antibiotics are effective in improving growth and efficiency of feed utilization, the benefits of its use is far greater than the risk of antibiotic resistance. In 1986, Sweden banned the use of feed antibiotics, and that resulted in a two-fold increase in piglet diarrhea, and similar attempts since then has showed a decline in nursery pig health, consequently increasing the need for therapeutic antibiotic administration. The result of omitting antibiotics in finisher feed is a reduction in feed efficiency and average daily gain. Alternatives to antibiotics can only really be found once the microbial ecology and microbiology of the digestive tract is determined. Some alternatives already in use include probiotics, prebiotics, organic acids and enzymes. Probiotics are essentially microbes added to animal feed that prevent pathogens from affecting the animal. Prebiotics exist to promote the growth of already established good (“non-pathogenic”) bacteria that live in the gut. Organic acids can influence the microbes of the gut by changing the physical conditions, making it less optimal for growth of bad (“pathogenic”) species. Enzymes can work for and against (respectively) non-pathogenic and pathogenic species in the gastrointestinal tract.
Is that what Consumers really think of us?
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Over the past few years the public impression of the hog industry has been improving. The most important issue for consumers is the environmental impact on large-scale swine facilities and they see the industry as being harder on the environment than other agricultural areas. The safety of Canadian pork has a very positive reputation. Animal welfare is surprisingly not a big issue as most of the public feel that the pigs are treated humanely. The fact that the public learns what they know about the industry through media is poor, as images can be distorted this way.
Prebiotic Feed Additives: Rationale and Use in Pigs
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Disease has always been a critical issue in pig production. It affects not only animal health and well-being, but also the physical and economic health of the producer. Growth promotant antibiotics have been fed to livestock since the 1940’s and have generally enhanced pig performance. The gut is full of “symbiotic” microbes, which means that they work with the pig to benefit each other. In the case of the pigs most of these microbes protect against harmful pathogens via competition for nutrients, production of toxic conditions, competition for attachment sites on intestine, or stimulation of the immune system. Prebiotics are defined as “A non-digestible food ingredient that beneficially affects the host by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activity of one or a limited number of bacteria in the colon.” Prebiotic compounds act by enriching beneficial bacterial populations to influence the defensive capability of the animal by altering immune function, intestinal structure, microbial populations, intestinal pH, fatty acid concentrations, mineral absorption and disease resistance. Some prebiotic studies have shown to improve growth performance, decrease variation, decrease morbidity and mortality, and decrease medicinal costs.
Calcium, phosphorus, and amino acid digestibility in low-phytate corn, normal corn, and soybean meal by growing pigs
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Nine growing barrows were equipped with a T-cannula in the distal ileum and used to determine apparent ileal (AID) and apparent total-tract digestibility (ATTD) coefficients of Ca and P in low-phytate corn, normal corn, soybean meal, and in diets where soybean meal was mixed with low-phytate corn or normal corn. The AID and the standardized ileal digestibility coefficients (SID) of CP and AA also were determined. The animals (initial BW = 29.3 ± 1 kg)
were allotted to a 9 × 9 Latin square with nine diets and nine periods. Three diets contained low-phytate corn, normal corn, and soybean meal as their sole source of CP, AA, Ca, and P, respectively. Three additional diets were identical to these diets except that limestone and monosodium phosphate were added. Two diets contained low-phytate corn or normal corn and soybean meal, limestone, and monosodium phosphate, and the final diet was a N-free diet. The AID and ATTD of Ca were higher (P < 0.05) for low-phytate corn than for normal corn (70.0 and 69.1% vs. 47.4 and 49.6%, respectively). The AID and ATTD for Ca in soybean meal (50.9 and 46.7%, respectively) did not differ from values for normal corn but were lower (P < 0.05) than for lowphytate corn. The AID and ATTD for P from low-phytate corn (56.5 and 54.5%, respectively) were greater (P < 0.05) than from normal corn (28.3 and 28.8%, respectively),
whereas soybean meal had intermediate AID and ATTD for P (37.2 and 38.0%, respectively). The AID and ATTD of P increased (P < 0.05) when monosodium phosphate was added to normal corn (44.9 and 49.8%, respectively) and soybean meal (49.6 and 46.2%, respectively), but adding monosodium phosphate to low-phytate corn, did not alter either AID
(49.7%) or ATTD (50.7%) of P. No differences between AID and ATTD for Ca or P within the same diet were observed. The AID of Arg, Asp, Gly, Ile, Lys, Phe, Thr, and Val were greater (P < 0.05) in low-phytate corn than in normal corn. The AID of all AA in soybean meal were greater (P < 0.05) than in both types of corn, with the exception of Ala, Cys, Leu, and Met. The SID of Lys, Phe, and Thr were higher (P < 0.05) in low-phytate corn than in normal corn. Because low-phytate corn has a higher digestibility of Ca and P, less inorganic Ca and P need to be supplemented to diets containing low-phytate corn than to those containing normal corn, and P excretion may be decreased when low-phytate
corn is used in the diet.
Simulated consequences of different housing and management strategies for growing pigs on productivity and the indoor area required
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The effects of production system, sorting strategy, group size, and feeding intensity on growth performance and weight distribution were used to assess the indoor area requirement. The required indoor area was generally decreased by the number of transfers, sorting the pigs by weight at an early stage compared to later, non-sorting the pigs compared to sorting by sex, or restricted intake of feed for a limited period.
Deodorization of Swine Manure Using Minced Horseradish Roots and Peroxides
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Improved manure management and utilization: A systems approach
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