Helping piglets on their way after weaning
It is vital for pork producers to see their piglets thrive straight after weaning. Weaner pigs doing well immediately leads to less diarrhoea, a continuation of good health later in life and eventually more uniformity at the slaughter line. A multi-enzyme complex can help piglets find the balance in those essential weeks after weaning.
Modern ways of pig rearing have significantly impacted weaning. After all, half a century ago, piglets were weaned between 8 and 12 weeks of age, whilst they gradually increased their solid feed intake. Today, however, weaning is carried out at much earlier ages (at three to four weeks old), which can be managed using pre-starter as well as starter feeds.
Another significant change is the increased sow prolificacy. A higher number of piglets born per litter has led to a large within-litter variation, something that becomes especially apparent at the end of each nursery period (at about 25-30 kg of body weight).
Managing those larger litters requires more intensive care and resources. Producers need to ensure that all piglets receive adequate nutrition and care, which can be a challenge. It is critical to implement scientifically studied strategies to better address the specific dietary requirements of the nursery piglets.
Wanted: good feed intake after weaning
Why is it relevant to make sure piglets start to eat well straight after weaning? It is well known from the scientific literature that 1 extra kg obtained in the nursery could translate to four to five fewer days to reach slaughter weight. For that reason, pre-starters and starter feeds are usually dense in nutrition whilst consisting of easily digestible raw materials, like fish meal, soybean meal, meat and bone meals or whey. Nutritionists often avoid the use of plant-based raw materials in the nursery, as high fibre content is associated with digestibility issues and diarrhoea.
A second good reason to aim for good feed intake straight after weaning is because animals overperforming in the nursery, can make do with lower-quality feeds later in life. During the grower-finisher phase, they can be fed relatively economical rations, with lower nutritional density and digestibility.
Thirdly, nutritional stress straight after weaning can have a negative influence on the general enzymatic system of the animal. In the first week after weaning, pigs usually suffer from a significant decline in their own pancreatic production of protease, amylase and lipase – a gradual recovery usually follows in the second week after weaning. Supplementation of exogeneous feed enzymes could compensate for that enzymatic drop.
Meta-analysis
Merging all this knowledge together, a multi-enzyme complex (MEC) was developed, which is marketed as Axtra Prime (IFF). Scientists recently carried out a meta-analysis, wanting to know the effect of the multi-enzyme complex on the growth performance in weaned piglets with an initial body weight of about 7.5 kg. The database consisted of four unpublished studies, see Table 1.
The dietary treatments consisted of:
- Diet 1: A conventional diet with highly digestible nutrients;
- Diet 2: A high-fibre, low-digestible protein diet; and
- Diet 3: A high-fibre, low-digestible protein diet supplemented with MEC.
All diets were corn, wheat and soybean meal-based, and were formulated to meet or exceed NRC specifications for weaned piglets. Diets 2 and 3 contained high fibre ingredients such as barley, DDGS, wheat middlings, rye and rapeseed meal depending on the geographic location of the study. In all studies, the multi-enzyme complex, included in Diet 3, provided 4,000 U/kg xylanase, 200 U/kg β-glucanase, 100 U/kg amylase and 2,000 U/kg protease. All diets contained 750 FTU/kg of a commercial phytase. Piglets were fed experimental diets in two phases for 42 days, from day 1 of weaning to their transfer to the finishing house.
Piglets fed the high fibre, low-digestible protein diet supplemented with the MEC achieved a numerically higher final body weight after 42 days: 28.9 kg compared to 27.7 kg (1.2 kg bodyweight improvement, 4.3%) in the group receiving the conventional diet with highly digestible nutrients. Supplementation of MEC to the high fibre, low-digestible protein diet, significantly improved final body weight after 42 days by 1.1 kg (4.0%): 28.9 compared to 27.8 versus the unsupplemented high fibre diet.
The addition of the multi-enzyme complex to the high fibre, low-digestible protein diet numerically improved FCR (1-42 days) by six points (3.8%): 1.51 compared to 1.57 in the group receiving the conventional diet with highly digestible nutrients and significantly improved FCR, versus the high fibre diet with no enzyme supplementation (seven points improvement, 4.4%).
Conclusion
Axtra Prime improves performance in piglets (~7.5-28 kg) fed a high fibre, low-digestible protein diet compared to the conventional diet with highly digestible nutrients. Supplementing the high fibre, low-digestible protein diet with this multi-enzyme complex leads to an additional 1.2 kg of body weight on day 42, compared to the conventional diet with highly digestible nutrients. As described above, 1 additional kg of body weight in the nursery could translate into four to five fewer days to slaughter. Through the use of the multi-enzyme complex producers have the opportunity to feed cheaper, lower quality diets while not negatively impacting feed conversion and body weights achieved during the post-weaning phase, helping to improve profitability.
References available on request.
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