Lecture 13- Pig nutrition Flashcards
What is the worth of the pig industry in Australia?
- $2.8 billion Australian industry
- > $100 million exports
- Employs ~ 20,000 Australians
What are the basics of pig nutrition?
- Cereal grains need to be processed
- Pigs will eat whole grain but it will pass straight through
- 0.7mmrecommendedparticlesize • Cracked, rolled or soaked
- Pig diets are assessed on lysine and DE • Dependent on growth stage etc.
- Diets in commercial piggeries based on life stage
- Weaners, growers, finishers, gilts, dry sows & lactating sows
- Water intake is correlated to feed intake • Piglets drink before they are weaned
What do you need to match the diet to and what is the case with swill feeding?
• If using commercial diets you need to match form to age
• Suitable size pellets for all pigs in the group
• Meal or mash is best
• Swill feeding is illegal
• Swill = meat, meat products or products that may have been in contact with meat (i.e. table
scraps)
• Dry stock feed mills need to meet Aus standards
• Blood & bone meals need to be rendered
Why do you need to match the feed to the life stage of the pig?
- at each life stage the requirements are different
- one of the most important things to do
What is the overall objective of sow nutrition?
• Efficient production of the maximum number of healthy weanling pigs during the sow’s reproductive lifetime.
What is the nutrient output of the sow?
-much higher nutrient drain on the sow during lactation than in any other life stage
What factors influencing sow feeding?
- Sow body condition score
- Sow productivity
- Parity
- Environmental conditions
- Health status
What are the challenges in feeding the sows?
- Meet the needs of the foetus(es)
- Maintain the pregnant sow
- Control excessive weight gains • Reduce unsoundness problems
What is the importance of dietary fibre for gestating sows?
- Adding dietary fibre to gestating sow rations may lower feed costs and increase reproductive performance
- ME content of fibrous feeds is greater for sows
- Sows have a large feed intake capacity relative to dietary requirement • Limit-fed gestating sows derive more energy
- Low feed intake and resulting slow rate of passage
- Higher hind gut fermentation capacity
- Sows fed additional fibre farrow and wean more pigs than sows fed control rations
- Feeding fibre also improved lactation feed intake, but reduced sow weight gain during pregnancy and pig birth weight
- Sows fed additional fibre exhibited less stereotypic behavior • bar-biting, sham-chewing, and excessive drinking
- The amount of NDF and the source of fibre are important
What are the practical considerations of fibre?
- Economics - total feed cost per sow per year
- Sows must eat more feed to meet energy requirements
- Digestion coefficients for high fibre ingredients are higher for sows than growing pigs
- Particle size may influence the energy value of the diet
- Sows require more time to eat their ration
What are the limitations of fibre?
- Economics
- Feed mixing and handling equipment
- Grinding- time consuming and dusty
- Bulky- may bridge in bulk bins and feeders
- Manure handling costs- larger volume of solids produced
- Liquid manure handling more difficult- larger, undigested feed particles
What is the concept of body condition score?
- BCS are subjective
- Visual appraisal used to make adjustments in feeding rate
- Feeding rate adjusted for the first 3⁄4 of gestation
- Target is to have 85+% of sows between BCS 2 and 4
Why is body conditions score important?
• BCS is an indicator of backfat
• Sows weaned with less than 20 mm of backfat may display a lengthened
rebreeding interval
• Sows losing 40% or more of their backfat during lactation did not return to heat within 14 d of weaning
• Sows that are too fat during gestation will have a lower feed intake during lactation
What are some details about sows’ milk?
- Quantity – energy and protein output
- Quality – milk composition
- Milking performance of sow is a key to piglet growth
- Piglets are dependent upon sow milk for almost all nutrients until 2-4 wks of age
What is the amount of milk influenced by?
• The amount of milk a sow produces is influenced by: • Age (parity)
• Breed (genetics)
• Pigs/litter
• Health Status
• # of functional teats • Water availability
-higher temp= less eating= lighter piglet
-higher energy diet= more fat in milk and bigger piglet
What are the potential consequences of low nutrient intake during lactation?
- Significant sow weight loss
- Depleted fat and protein reserves
- Weakened bones
- Extended weaning to conception intervals
- Reduced milk production
- Reduced piglet vigour
- Reduce piglet survival
- Reduced weaning weight
- Lowered subsequent reproductive performance
What are the methods to maximize feed intake?
- Avoid overfeeding in gestation • Feed >2 x day
- Feed pelleted rations
- Consider “wet” feeding
- Minimize fibre level in hot weather
- Provide adequate and clean water supply
- Avoid ambient temperatures in excess of 24oC
- 16 h/d lighting
- Feed a nutrient dense ration
What are the amino acid requirements in pigs?
• Pigs have a requirement for AA and not protein per se • Balancing rations on a protein basis can be wasteful
• Diets meeting lysine requirements using soya, high in other AA – surplus to requirements
• Increased waste in cost and nitrogen excreted
-benefit= • Increased usage of dietary AA leads to decrease in nitrogen excretion • Estimated 1% decrease crude protein in maize meal – soya diet, N excretion
reduced by 8%
• Substitute 97% maize meal + 3% crystalline AA for 100% soya in diet leads to 2% lower crude protein but a 16% decrease in N excreted
What is Phytase?
- Enzyme that is widespread in nature • Formed by many microorganisms
- Fungi
- yeasts
- bacteria
- remen microbes
- Cleaves the phytate phosphorus (phosphoinositol)
- Accounts for about 67% of total P present
- Poultry and pigs have virtually no phytase activity in the gut lumen
How is phytase formed?
- Phytic acid formed by esterification of inositol
- Often binds major elements and trace elements in an unusable form
- Calcium
- Magnesium • Iron
- Zinc
What are the effects of phytate phosphorus?
- Accounts for 66% of total phosphorus in maize meal
- Accounts for 61% of total phosphorus in soya bean meal
- Only 10-12% of P in maize meal can be utilised by the animal
- Only 23-30% of P in soya bean meal can be utilised by the animal
What are the feeding phytase supplements?
- 500 phytase activity units (FTU) per kg is beneficial
- Inclusion levels range from 250-500 FTU
- Substituting 10% wheat middlings, 1.5% citric acid, and 300 FTU/kg phytase compared with mineral inorganic phosphorus
- Results in same weight gain and improved feed efficiency • Eliminates need for any inorganic P
What are some more practices to decrease P excretion?
- Addition of more phases in feeding program
- Split sex feeding
- Formulate diets to meet the pigs needs with adequate amount of surplus
- Pelleting
- Reduce particle size
What are the criteria for pork quality?
- Nutritional value
- Sensory qualities
- Flavour & fragrance • Juiciness
- Technical qualities • Marbling
- Fat firmness
- Fat composition & oxidation
What is pork processing like?
- Bacon
- Sausages and emulsions
- Case ready products
- Exported products
- Product choice largely dependent on ratio of unsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids in diet
What are the requirements for fatty acids in pigs?
- Saturated fatty acids
- Solid at room temperature
- Palmitic (16:0), Stearic (18:0) • Unsaturated fatty acids
- Liquid at room temperature
- Monounsaturated: palmitoleic (16:1), oleic (18:1)
- Polyunsaturated: linoleic (18:2), linolenic (18:3), arachidonic (20:4)
What is the carcass fatty acid synthesis?
- De novo synthesis
- Saturated (palmitic and stearic) • Monounsaturated (oleic)
- Dietary sources
- Polyunsaturated • Linoleic (C18:2)
How is fat evaluated in pork?
- Melting point
- Indicator of degree of saturation
- Iodine number
- Estimation of % unsaturated fatty acids
- Gas chromatography
- Separation of fatty acids by length and saturation
What are the common dietary sources of fat?
- Animal fats
- Beef tallow, choice white grease, lard, poultry fat, restaurant grease
- Fish oils
- Anchovy,herring,menhaden
- Vegetable oils
- Canola, corn, cottonseed, olive, palm, peanut, safflower, sesame, soybean, sunflower
What is the conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)?
- Isomer of linoleic acid (variable) • C18:2 9 cis, 11 trans
- C18:210trans,12cis
- Increased growth efficiency
- Enhanced immune response • Anticarcinogenic
What is the relationship of pork quality and CLA?
- Reduces carcass fat
- Improves intramuscular fat/ marbling
- Increases fat firmness
- Counteraction of dietary unsaturated fats
- 0 to 5% of dietary fatty acids +/- additional fat sources
What are free range pigs?
- Outdoor pigs need more than just pasture • Inefficient (~50%) fibre digestion
- Particularlyinyoungpigs
- Pigs can be vegetarian
- Best to consult nutritionist
- Free range animals will eat bugs etc..
- Generally have higher mortality and are less efficient
