Research: Pig diets to reduce costs, not performance

Research conducted at the University of Guelph has shown, under certain conditions, pork producers can reduce feeding costs without affecting performance by feeding less complex diets in the nursery barn.

As part of a multi-institutional initiative being conducted on behalf of Swine Innovation Porc aimed at improving the productivity and longevity of the sow herd, the University of Guelph looked at the long-term impact of post weaning feeding strategies.

Scientists tracked five groups of pigs fed two different diets during the nursery phase.

Dr. Kees de Lange, a professor of swine nutrition with the University of Guelph, says researchers looked at the physiology of the animals including their ability to fight disease and the role of diet in the nursery phase on growth performance right up to market weight and on carcass quality.

“The real surprise to us was that animals that performed a little bit poorer in the nursery phase, because we gave them a diet that had fewer of those expensive animals proteins that are included in starter pig diets, […] in fact performed better during the grower finisher phase,” De Lange said.

“At the end of the day there was no difference in days to market, in carcass quality of the animals that had originally shown some poorer performance in the nursery.”

Compensatory effect
De Lange said that they were in fact reducing feeding cost in the nursery phase by more than two dollars per pig. As an additional feature, the animals showed compensatory growth and tended to be more efficient in the grower finisher barn.

“The total benefit to the producer is in fact more than two dollars and getting close to three dollars per pig out the door,” he said.

De Lange says, the results were consistent in four of the groups but, in the fifth group which was hit by disease, animals fed the less complex diet did not manage as well which raises the question of how the nursery feeding programme will influence the pig’s ability to fight disease.

He says that will need to be answered before making broad recommendations on nursery feeding programmes.

Source: Farmscape

ASF outbreaks in Tver region, Russia continue

There have been a number of new outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF) recently registered in the Tver region, Russia.

Over the past few weeks the outbreaks have been occurring in the wild. However, experts have said that not all outbreaks of ASF among wild boars are reported.


The specialists of the Russian Research Institute of Veterinary Virology and Microbiology, under the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences reported the detection of the genetic material of ASF virus in samples from taken the bodies of two wild boars killed by the hunters on 31 October, in Zavidovo, Tver region.

The heads of Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) stated that the depopulation of wild boars as one a priority objective in the fight against the spread of ASF. The depopulation should be carried out in all regions where virus outbreaks were reported.

The Office of Rosselkhoznadzor in Tver and Pskov regions reported that the number of wild boars in the Tver region is currently about 16,000. In 2011, there were plans to shoot 8000 boars but only 5244 were killed.

This year 9,500 pigs will be culled, with the first half of the year seeing 404 pigs killed, accounting for 4.3% of the plan, which is not enough to reduce the risk of new outbreaks of the disease in the wild. In most regions of the country where there have been ASF outbreaks reported, programs were also adopted to reduce the boar population in the region.

Pig numbers in Hungary down by 40%

 

  

Numbers of both finishers and sows in Hungary have shrunk by about 40% in ten years, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) reports.

In 2001, the reported number of finishers in Hungary was 4.8 million. A total of 2.4 million was kept in integrated farms; the other 2.4 million lived at family farms. The total number of finishers in 2011 was only 3 million – a decrease of 37%. The majority of finishers could be found on integrated farms (2.2 million), whereas only 867,000 could be found on smaller family farms.

Sow numbers have also come down sharply in the last decade. In 2001, Hungary was reported to have 343,000 sows; in 2011 this number had shrunk to 210,000 sows – a 38.8% decrease.

In the poultry sector, numbers have come down as well. Differences, however, are not as strong as in the pig industry. In 2001, 34.3 million head of chickens could be found in Hungary – ten years later this was 32.9 million.

Related website:
Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH)

Advancia explores amino acids in young animals

 

  

More than 65 participants attended this 6th Advancia International Methionine Seminar on young animal nutrition and organised prior to the XXIVth World Poultry Conference in Bahia, Brazil.

“We decided to focus our 2012 seminar on the first steps of animal growth. Our motto was: Feeding the young animals: the challenge of the nutritionist for the best start of growth!” said Dr Pierre-André Geraert, Director Innovation Marketing at Adisseo.

“Our aim with specialists from this field was to better understand the changes faced by the young animals in the early phases as well as to revisit their needs in amino acids and the efficiency of methionine”.

Dr Michel Duclos (INRA, France) and Prof Eddy Decuypere (KUL, Belgium) set the scene of this Advancia 2012 seminar by giving a deep insight into the physiology of the muscle satellite cells as key players in muscle development post-hatch and into the hormonal and physiological context from the breeder to the early days post hatch, respectively.

Prof Horacio Rostagno illustrated such physiological needs by updating participants with his latest results on the amino acid requirements of young chicks.

He further demonstrated the need to revisit the requirement to take into account the higher growth potential of present breeds as well as its consequence on muscle growth and particularly breast meat deposition.

Prof Zhenfeng Fang (SAU, China) focused on the impact of the maternal feeding on the young piglet, showing the strong influence of the amino acid nutrition of the sow on the litter growth.

The final impact of dietary amino acids on muscle amino acid composition was also clearly demonstrated by Dr Alberto Conde-Aguilera (INRA, France).

Completing previous information, he illustrated the rapid change of muscle amino acid composition with dietary amino acid modifications prior to slaughter. Such rapid effect could even be better valued on muscle properties and potentially meat quality.

Advancia, the Scientific and Technical Community launched by Adisseo in 2007 gathers worldwide scientists and nutritionists to share research progresses on amino acids showing that these nutrients and particularly sulphur amino acids are involved not only in growth performance but also in various metabolic functions: anti-oxidant potential and animal health, as well as, meat quality and its technological properties.

Bird flu ban crippling poultry industry in Indian state

 

  

The poultry industry in the India state of Karnataka is losing hundreds of thousands of euros waiting for its neighbour state Kerala to lift its poultry ban following an outbreak of bird flu.

As Karnataka’s poultry industry holds its breath, Kerala has scheduled a high-level meeting to discus the lifting of the ban. Sources believe the chance is remote as Kerala’s minister of animal husbandry KP Mohanan doesn’t want to take a risk by allowing poultry products before the end of the incubation period

Hundreds of trucks loaded with chicken and eggs were stranded at important checkposts such as Palakkad, Sulthanbatheri and Iritty after the Kerala government imposed a ban on the entry of poultry products from Karnataka due to the outbreak of avian influenza at a poultry farm situated at Hesaraghatta.

It is estimated more than 1,200,000 eggs are supplied to Kerala from 55 poultry farms in and around Mysore, Karnataka’s second largest city.

According to MP Sateesh Babu, chairman, National Egg Coordination Committee, Mysore zone, the poultry industry is expected to sustain a daily loss of over 350,000 euros.

“We have made all attempts to convince the Kerala government, but in vain. We do not know what to do with the excess stock of eggs. We have even tried to supply to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, but the drop in egg prices have made us think twice before embarking on such a plan,’’ Babu said.

According to Babu, there are 17.5 million birds at various poultries across Karnataka while Andhra Pradesh stands first with 75 million birds and Tamil Nadu second with 47.5 million birds. “There are 224 million birds at poultry farms situated across the country. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have the major share in poultry products exports among all the states in the country,’’ he said.

Recalling the efforts made to convince the Kerala government about the need to lift the ban on poultry products, he said a five-member team from Mysore had visited Kerala to meet KP Mohanan. “We have explained to them that the birds are from various poultry farms in and around Mysore and there was no outbreak of virus in the area. I was surprised to hear minister Mohanan say that many people have died of avian influenza. I was surprised to hear a minister, representing a state that boasts of 100% literacy, making such statements without verifying facts or having proper knowledge about avian influenza,’’ he said.

Research: Mixed results with probiotics in broilers

 

  

South Korean scientists studied the effects of β-glucan and Bacillus subtilis on growth performance, blood profiles, relative organ weight and meat quality in broilers fed maize-soybean meal based diets.

South Korean scientists studied the effects of β-glucan and Bacillus subtilis on growth performance, blood profiles, relative organ weight and meat quality in broilers fed maize-soybean meal based diets.

A total of 480 mixed sex broilers (BW of 46.3±0.5 g) were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatments in a 2x2 factorial arrangement with 2 levels of β-glucan (0 or 1 g/kg) and Bacillus subtilis (0 or 108 cfu/kg).

There were 6 replicate pens/treatment with 20 chicks/pen for growth performance and 5 chicks/pen for meat quality and blood profiles in this 5-wk study.

Results
Broilers fed Bacillus subtilis diets had 5.3% and 3.3% greater body weight gain (BWG) during d 22-35 and throughout the study, respectively.

No effects were observed in blood profiles. Administration of either β-glucan or Bacillus subtilis increased 3.9% or 3.8% of the relative weight of spleen, respectively, while the supplementation of β-glucan decreased the relative weight of abdominal fat by 16.0%.

Dietary supplementation with β-glucan decreased the breast meat b* value 26.2%, and a synergistic interactive effect of β-glucan and Bacillus subtilis was observed in b* value of breast meat.

Conclusion
Bacillus subtilis at 108 cfu/kg of diet improved BWG and relative weight of spleen, while 1 g/kg β-glucan did not improve BWG, but decreased the relative weight of abdominal fat and b* value of breast meat in broilers.

Russia plans to produce 30 million tonnes of feed

 

According to experts Russia will be able to produce about 30-32m tonnes of feed by 2015, this was recently stated by the president of the Russian Union of Feed producers Valery Afanasiev, speaking at a meeting of the Russian Technology Platform "Technologies for the food processing industry and agriculture healthy food" in the conference "Golden Autumn 2012".

"Today our feed industry is probably one of the most stable and fastest growing", he stressed, “The annual increase in production of animal feed is currently estimated at the level of 1.2-1.3m tonnes. This is about 9-10% of the annual production. Sustainability to the Russian feed industry has been brought primarily by the Russian poultry farmers and pig breeders, because the rapid growth in this sectors led to constant increase of the demand for animal feed and feed additives”.

At present, according to Russian Federal Static Service (Rosstat), annually Russia produces 17.8 million tons of feed. However, Russian Union of Feed producers say that actually this figure is higher. “It's no secret that small and medium-sized livestock operations have a lot of unaccounted feed” explain the representatives. According to estimates of the Union, real annual feed production in Russian is currently range around 22-23m tonnes.

Based on these data, Afanasiev estimated the potential of the feed industry as 30-32 million tons of feed produced by 2015 and 40m tonnes of feed by 2020. He also recalled that feed producers in the USSR annually output about 50m tonnes of feed.

by Vladislav Vorotnikov Oct 31, 2012