Formulating a piglet’s diet is complex, but there are a few aspects that are critical to success. Dr. Ruben Decaluwe, Global Technical Manager of Swine Young Animal Feed at Trouw Nutrition, shares his thoughts on the three most important:
1) Palatability
“Nutrition can only impact a pig if the feed is eaten, so if you have diets which are not palatable then the pigs will say ‘no thank you, I’ll leave that for the next pig,’” he said. “You can put whatever you want in the feeds, but it will not work if it remains in the trough; it will only work if it's eaten by the pig. So palatable feed is crucial.”
This is demonstrated in research trials conducted on two groups of pigs – one group was infected orally with pathogenic E. coli for postweaning diarrhea, and one that was not infected. The hypothesis was that the infected pigs would have suboptimal performances, lower feed efficiencies and lower gains. However, that was not true; the infected pigs performed well.
“They did exactly the same as long as they had a feed intake above maintenance. If they kept eating, pigs didn't care if they were infected with E. coli. But in the piglets that had a low feed intake, they suffered a lot. They had lower performance and lower gains. That's why palatable food is so important.”
If you have piglets that eat well and above maintenance with a good quality diet, Decaluwe says piglets should be able to cope, even without medication, around weaning.
“Around weaning, one of the main challenges is that piglets just stop eating for a period of time,” he explained. “Palatability has a lot to do with feed management - how fresh is the feed, were they able to learn how to eat dry feed, how many feeder spaces are available. If you have 100 pigs and only one feeder, the diet can be palatable, but they will not eat it because they just don't get the opportunity.”
Neophobia, the reluctance or fear to try new foods, can be seen with piglets at weaning. They will be very reluctant to eat dry feed because it’s new and they tend to sample feed, taking in just a few grams. Thus, palatability can be really important in encouraging feed intake.
2) Quality
The second most important component is the importance of feed and water quality during pig transitions.
“Contamination is the main concern. For example, with very high bacterial loads, mycotoxins or molds can easily be controlled in feed,” he said. “The key is to maintain quality checks and parameters to analyze the ingredient quality. Also, if you have a lot of mycotoxins or mold, pigs are very sensitive to taste and smell, and they will refuse poor quality feed.”
The same is true for oxidation of fat. For example, if you don't have fresh feeds, the pig will leave the feed in the feeder. Also consider the feed characteristics like pellet hardness.
“If you give hard pellets to young piglets which are still sore in the mouth due to teeth eruption, it will be painful,” he said. “Then your feed is related to pain, and piglets will stop eating. Ensure piglets are given soft pellets or liquid diets to start.”
Durability of the pellets should also be monitored. If it breaks easily, and you're getting a lot of dust, there’s a risk the feed will not be homogeneous. Young piglets are only eating 100 to 200 grams per day throughout the first two weeks postweaning.
“All the nutrients they need - including microelements and vitamins - just to keep their physiological functions working are at risk of sub-optimal functioning,” he said. “If all the vitamins are on the left side of the trough and all the protein is on the right side, then the piglet isn’t getting the balanced diet they need.”
3) Well-balanced nutrition
“Well-balanced nutrition depends on the health status of the animal because it's not only about feed efficiency, it's also about performance while keeping the animals healthy - that's the real trick,” he noted. “The goal is to create efficiency, performance and health, and keep this in balance. To do this, know what type of pigs you are feeding. If you're using antibiotics, for example, then the nutritional approach will be completely different than if you're feeding pigs which are at a high risk of facing diarrhea and gut health challenges. Adapt your feeding composition to match the situation.”
For example, it’s well known that if protein reaches the hindgut, it will cause diarrhea. The risk is that if you lower the protein levels in the diet, your animals will not grow. “The key is to find the balance and, to do that, you need to find the edge between keeping your animals healthy and inducing diarrhea,” he said. “It takes trial and error and depends on the breeds you're working with as well as the environment, health, and farm management.”
Another way to avoid protein reaching the hindgut is to make sure as much protein as possible is being digested before it reaches the hindgut. Work with a nutritionist to know and understand your ingredients. If you are working with a tricky ingredient, you may try what Decaluwe calls a sledgehammer approach with, for example, 5% inclusion in the diet or even 8% inclusion for a key protein source. Another approach is to consider digestion kinetics. If certain proteins are easily digested, then a nutritional formulation can be developed that is the least cost formulation a piglet can manage under certain infection pressure.
When pigs are health challenged, some of the nutrients and amino acids will be diverted to the immune system to produce better immune-related proteins. Thus, these nutrients are no longer available to build lean tissue, resulting in performance loss.
“You can provide more specific amino acids that are needed for the immune system via the diet, which means the amount of assets needed for lean gain are not hampered and the pigs can maintain performance because they feed the muscle of the pig and the immune system at the same time,” said Decaluwe.
Fiber is another component of balanced nutrition. Historically, it was thought that fiber did not offer any value for young pigs.
“Research during the last few years shows that fiber can have a real impact on gut health, both protective and inducing health challenges. However, know which type of fiber to add and how much because if it’s too much, there's no room in your diet for energy or protein, and piglets will not grow.”
The last part of balanced nutrition is feed additives, which Decaluwe sees as an extra layer.
“There are a lot of feed additives out there and adding a feed additive on top no matter what you do with nutrition might be a success if you're having small challenges throughout your weaning process, but if you really want to do it thoroughly, efficiently and profitably, then it's best to look at nutrition and change it completely and then add feed additives in a targeted and selective way,” he said.
Of the feed additives available, Decaluwe said many offer different modes of action, but there’s also some overlap. He recommends caution when selecting feed additives. “If you make smart collections - ones that are supporting the stomach functionality, others that are looking for E. coli or Salmonella control, and others that are looking for S. suis or Clostridium control - they can work with an additive effect,” he said.
For example, a low pH in the stomach is important for several reasons.
“If the piglet is not producing sufficient stomach acid and the pH goes up, all the functionalities of the stomach are lost, including digestion and pathogen control,” he said. “Feed additives can help the piglet lower the stomach pH. It’s taking over part of the physiological process for the animal until it's fully matured and can take care of itself.”
With antimicrobial reduction and the removal of heavy metals, the risk for health challenges around weaning will increase. The masking factor will be gone, and sub-optimally balanced diets will become much more visible, he said.
“Overall, if you have health-challenged animals, be aware that they need to be fed differently than healthy animals,” he said. “If you feed the right balance of feeds, you can get the highest possible return in your challenged animals.”
