GUT HEALTH AND THE MICROBIOME

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In pigs, and humans, which have similar GI tract anatomy, by far the largest amount of microbial diversity can be found in the colon. The colon is a specialist organ for microbial fermentation, and in a healthy gut, many of the microbial metabolites produced are beneficial to the host, regulating the immune system and protection from pathogens, increasing the efficiency of caloric extraction from food, and detoxifying otherwise harmful substances. Those who study the human microbiota have begun to understand how diet and the use of pharmaceutical agents such as antimicrobials can radically affect the balance of the gut microbial ecosystem with unintended, detrimental effects. The results of this work are also appropriate to swine management strategies, since effectively managing the gut microbiota of a herd will likely promote great benefits to both animals and farmers.

The gut microbiota is a virtual, but forgotten organ. Studies in humans have clearly demonstrated the importance of gut microbiota to health and well-being, and how dysbiosis within the ecosystem may be associated with a surprising variety of diseases. If a smart approach is taken to modulation of the swine microbiota with live microbes or prebiotic feed enhancement strategies, this may help to improve animal health and product safety, and to reduce farming costs.

HOW HAVE NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND KNOWLEDGE CHANGED OUR VIEWS OF NUTRITION

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Transitioning from total to digestible amino acids and phosphorus and from DE and ME to NE systems have allowed us to understand key nutrient requirements. This has allowed for increased use of byproduct ingredients, thus improving economic efficiency. Robust growth and production models allow more accurate depiction of nutrient requirements while a growing number of on-farm research facilities allows for testing of those requirements, feed ingredients and additives under field conditions. The rapid adoption of automatic feeders for lactating sows has decreased problems with underfeeding that often had occurred during this phase. Improvements in nursery and finishing feeders has decreased feed wastage. In the last 20 years, use of the ethanol  byproduct, DDGS, has caused an improved understanding of the impact of nutrition on fat quality, optimal crystalline amino acid use, and fiber withdrawal strategies.

BATCH FARROWING: 10 YEARS LATER

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WHAT DOES BATCH FARROWING MEAN?

First we need to know what a batch farrowing system is – taking one week’s production and compiling it into a multi-week system. It can range from a 2 week cycle to a 4 or 5 week cycle. Instead of breeding and weaning every week, you do it once every 2 weeks or whatever length works for your operation, depending on labour availability, desired nursery group size, and target weaning age. The 2 week batch will give you 10 continuous groups in the sow barn or 26 groups per year.

ADVANTAGES TO A BATCH SYSTEM

• Larger and more uniform weaner group sizes

• Feeding the pigs more efficiently

• Defining the jobs amongst employees

• Planning your week out for busier days

• Using your labour more efficiently, when and where you need it

• Easier to plan for holidays and long weekends

RETROFIT FOR LOOSE HOUSING

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There are many factors that affect the success or failure of retrofitting farms to group housing. Properly managed with the right care and attitude, many different forms of group housing can result in performance similar to gestation stalls. However, the challenge lies in the transition period, and making the choices which fit the resources, cost, and staff available on your farm. Due to the inherent unique features that differ between farms, peer-reviewed research alone can never answer all of the questions. Nonetheless, the transition to group-housing offers an opportunity to apply a focus on stockmanship in your herd. Future opportunities exist to reduce feed costs, minimize aggression and increase performance of group-housed sows through utilization of new technologies and pig production strategies.

This article discusses

• Common group housing questions
  • Is retrofitting the most cost-effective investment long-term?
  • When is the best time to mix sows into groups?
  • When is the best time to mix sows into groups?
  • Static or dynamic grouping?
  • How many sows per pen?
• Pen structure and design
  • Flooring type
  • Waterers
  • Nesting walls and gating material
  • Lighting
  • Hospital Pens
  • Cost of retrofitting existing facilities
• Managing people and pigs in the transition
  • Planning the process
  • Stockmanship
  • Old sows
• Feeding strategies for group housing success
  • Optimization of sow body condition
  • Gestation diet
  • Common mistakes

REVISITING THE BASICS OF BREEDING

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With traditional, intracervical artificial insemination (AI), 2 to 3 inseminations/estrus period are performed with each AI requiring 3 to 5 minutes. Individual AI doses contain 1.5 to 3 billion sperm cells in a volume of 70 to 85 mL. However, a significant proportion of sows in estrus on commercial farms are now bred 2 to 3 times using post-cervical AI (PCAI) with each AI dose containing approximately 50% of the sperm cells and volume that doses contained previously. With PCAI, semen is deposited just inside the uterus, requiring 10 to 15 seconds.

Regardless of whether intracervical AI or PCAI is employed, proper timing of inseminations is a prerequisite for high farrowing rates and large litter sizes. Reproductive performance in sows is greatest when semen is deposited 0 to 24 hours before ovulation (Soede et al., 1995)

PROPER DETECTION OF ESTRUS IS KEY FOR REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS

• The ability to accurately detect estrus, particularly in gilts, is perhaps the most important factor impacting reproductive performance and longevity on sow farms
• Having a designated person for detecting estrus and breeding gilts has been listed as a key factor in wether or not sows are high or low longevity
• Estrus can only be confirmed, by display of the lordosis or immobilization response
• Daily boar exposure (10 to 15 minutes) commenced at 160 days of age, gilts given direct contact with a boar after movement to an estrus detection pen were significantly younger at first estrus (180.9 days of age) compared with gilts given fence-line contact only (191.9 days of age),
• Age of boars used to detect estrus is important, beginning at approximately 10 months of age.

SINGLE, FIXED TIME ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION

A new product called OvuGel is labelled for inducing ovulation in weaned sows by stimulating the release of luteinizing hormone. Sows receive intravaginal treatment with OvuGel 96 hours post-weaning, and ovulation occurs 40 to 48 hours after treatment (Knox et al., 2014). Thus, when using OvuGel, a single fixed time AI (FTAI) can be performed approximately 24 hours after treatment. In theory, sows can be bred without regard to estrus.

• In order for OvuGel to be effective at inducing ovulation, treated animals must have an available crop of mature ovarian follicles.
• P.G. 600, has been demonstrated to accelerate the onset of follicular growth, estrus and ovulation in sows weaned during the summer (Bates et al., ).
• After first mating, a greater proportion of control sows (24.8%), compared to P.G. 600-treated sows (12.0%) returned to estrus.

THE ISSUE OF PRE-WEANING MORTALITY

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Pre-weaning mortality is a complex subject, as there are many factors that often lead to the final demise of the piglet. For example, “crushing” is often recorded to be the cause of death, but the piglet could have been chilled, causing it to lay beside the dam for warmth, which led to the piglet being laid on. Farms that have good management practices, to reduce the influence of environment and health on the sow and piglet, are usually able to accomplish what would be considered very low levels of pre-weaning mortality. In other complicated cases, getting mortality down to targets of less than 10% can be quite challenging and frustrating.

3 major factors were discussed regarding PWM.

1. Animal Factors

• Piglet
  • Birth weight
  • Colostrum intake within 6-8 hours
  • Fostering of piglets to reduce PWM
• Sow
  • Sows that farrow in the gestation barn are a huge cause of profit loss and reinforce the need for good record keeping and stockmanship
  • Sow nutrition prior to and during lactation
  • A sow’s rectal temperature will increase immediately prior to and after parturition, but if it continues to be elevated for more than 24 hours, this would be abnormal

2. Environmental factors

• Heat lamps have been shown to be superior to heat pads, however any source, is preferable to no heat source.
• All in all out is superior over continuous flow in terms of PWM
• Sanitation of farrowing rooms should be performed between every batch.
  • Allow to dry for as long as possible
• Washing of sows prior to farrowing has been shown to have a significant impact on PWM
• Vaccination programs should be reviewed on a regular basis
  • Feed-back for scour management

3. Human factors

• Significant decrease in PWM if sows are farrowing while there are competent staff present

MASTERING BREEDING IN AN ERA OF NEW TECHNOLOGY

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A number of new artificial insemination (AI) technologies have recently become available to swine producers, such as post-cervical AI (PCAI) and fixed-time AI (FTAI). With PCAI, semen is deposited just inside the uterus, requiring fewer sperm cells, and less time for breeding, than traditional intracervical AI. A new product released for commercial use in weaned sows (OvuGel; JBS United Animal Health, Sheridan, IN, USA) induces ovulation. The compound is administered 96 hours post-weaning, and a single, FTAI is performed approximately 22 hours later. Thus, the number of semen doses used for AI is decreased and labour associated with detection of estrus can be eliminated. Acceptable fertility outcomes from PCAI and FTAI have been demonstrated in large scale studies under commercial conditions. Meanwhile, advances have been made in the cryopreservation of boar sperm cells and use of frozen semen, perhaps in conjunction with PCAI and/or FTAI.

These new and exciting reproductive technologies are becoming available to commercial pork producers and offer great potential for dramatically increasing reproductive efficiency. For this potential to be realized, however, breeding females must be selected and managed to exhibit a high level of lifetime productivity. New production systems and management protocols are a wise investment and the improved breeding herd performance that results is illustrated by work reported by Patterson et al. (2016) and Foxcroft and Patterson (2016). Various benchmarks of excellent gilt performance exist, such as first service farrowing rates of > 80% and litter sizes of > 12.5 total born pigs.

Major effects of mycotoxins on swine performance

Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre by admin on May 9, 2017 | No Comments

¹Decreased ADFI and feed refusals have been shown at levels as low as 0.5-1 ppm (Smith et al., 2005),  ² > 2-5 ppm is for decreased ADFI and ADG, vomiting and complete feed refusal at > 20 ppm (Haschek et al., 2002),  ³Pierce and Diaz, 2014,  ⁴JECFA, 2001,  ⁵Nibbelink, 1986,  ⁶Whitlow et al., 2014,  ⁷Friend et al., 1990          ,  ⁸Smith et al., 2005,  ⁹Osweiller, 1986,  ¹⁰Kidney damage occurs at levels as low as 0.5 ppm (Lippold et al., 1992),  ¹¹Performance is affected at levels of 2 ppm or greater (Lippold et al., 1992; Stoev et al., 2000),  ¹²Can occur when levels > 2 ppm are fed for longer periods of time (Harvey et al., 1992),  ¹³ADG reduced by 11% when 10 ppm fumonisin B1 was fed to starter pigs for 8 weeks (Rotter et al., 1996),  ¹⁴Strickland et al., 2011

Understanding gut development in the pig and implication for health and nutrient utilization

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The digestive tract in the neonatal pig undergoes significant structural and functional changes as it transitions from placental feeding in utero to oral feeding after birth, and the consumption of solid food after weaning. This development not only prepares the gut for efficient digestion and absorption of nutrients, but it also helps ensure that a mature gut immune system is in place. Unfortunately, an immature digestive tract in neonatal pigs is still partly responsible for a large population of of peri-natal mortality and pigs and a significant contributor to the post weaning growth check. Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions. For several decades, the swine industry has been over dependent on antibiotic supplementation. The tide has obviously turned against sub-therapeutic antibiotic use and the industry must look for alternatives to antibiotics. However a thorough understanding of gut development in the neonatal pig will be essential for determining ideal strategies to optimize gut health and performance.

Understanding gut development in the pig and implication for health and nutrient utilization

Alternatives to in feed antibiotics: Options, limitations and opportunities

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There are currently three broad strategies for antibiotic alternatives and they are outlined in this review as follows.

1. Promoting a stable and healthy gut microflora that excludes pathogens and promotes optimal gut function and animal health
2. Killing and inhibiting potential pathogens or detrimental microbes
3. Enhancing nutrient availability, digestion and uptake.

Alternatives for promoting a healthy and stable gut flora:

• Probiotics
  • Live microorganisms that promote a healthy gut microbial profile
• Prebiotics
  • Nutritionally support microbes considered beneficial to gut health
• Essential oils
  • Some have antibacterial effects while others increase palatability
• Organic acids
  • Modulate gut microbes by reducing PH
  • May also increase protien digestion
• Exogenous enzymes
  • Alter transit time of gut contents
  • provide additional substrates to facilitate bacterial fermentation and the production of volatile fatty acids

Much research continues in an effort to find and develop cost effective alternative products that match or exceed the production benefits associated with in feed antibiotics. As of yet, no single product, or combination of products, appears to consistently provide all of the benefits of or multiple modes of action as do antibiotics. Effects of current alternatives are likely  to be more subtle, often encouraging a healthy gut microbiota, but not as likely to overcome significant pathogen loads or preexisting diseases, in contrast to antimicrobial products. Producers must think of alternatives as preventative agents that work in concert with optimal management, nutrition, housing and other husbandry practices to optimizing growth and performance.

Alternatives to in feed antibiotics Options, limitations and opportunities