Close up of the sea weed Ascophyllum_nodosum.
acid in the algal protein with an indicative contribution of about 10g/kg of flour. All in all, the mix of components that are naturally present in Ascophyllum flour seems to have been formulated specifically to promote the intestinal well-being of the animals, well-being from which derive an effective immunostimulation, resistance to diseases and an obviously effective absorption of dietary nutrients.
Ascophyllum and swine feeding There are two ways of using Ascophyllum meal in pig diets: for sows and for weaned piglets. Field tests on sows (Danish Landrace x Large White crossbreeds), conducted in Denmark with the cooperation of Dr Poul Erik Nielsen, Skødstrup, showed that, in a herd of about 900 sows, the use of brown algae meal at a dose of 30g per day throughout the cycle re- sulted in a substantial improvement in the animals’ fertility. The number of ‘empty’ days per sow reduced drastically from 27 to 11 (see Table 1). On an annual basis, that has resulted in an increase in the number of deliveries per sow from 2.1 to 2.32. In addition, the number of stillborns fell from 2.1 to 1.8/sow/litter. As a result, the productivity of the farm has increased from 31 to 35.3 weaned piglets per sow per year. Interestingly and to the sur- prise of the breeder, those results were obtained despite the fact that the trial began on July 3. In fact, the animals supple- mented with Ascophyllum underwent heat stress during the summer period last year, due to the well-known climatic anomalies, has been extremely marked also in the northern European countries. This fact increases the value of the ob- tained result since, as is well known, the summer period which normally sees a worsening of the reproductive param- eters. The data shown in Table 1 were obtained in Denmark at the Ødum Engholm farm; in the table the productivity of the sec- ond quarter (Q2) of 2018 is compared to that of the two sub- sequent quarters in which, Ascophyllum meal was introduced into the diet of all sows at the rate of 30g/animal/day. At the end of the six-month trial period, the farm manager, Mr Hen- rik Steen Pedersen, reported another interesting aspect, be- ing the reduction in cases of sudden death of sows attributa- ble to the proliferation of Clostridium novyi. Mr Pedersen said that the reduction of cases of sudden death was enough to justify the cost of introducing Ascophyllum flour. As far as piglets are concerned, the experience from the last two/three years suggests that Ascophyllum meal is a raw ma- terial that can be used successfully during the weaning phase, allowing the reduction or elimination of the use of zinc oxide. In general, the dose used in weaning is 4-5 kg per tonne of feed.
Table 1 – Production results of Q2, Q3 and Q4 of 2018 at Ødum Engholm farm. Algae flour was used in Q3 and Q4.
Q2, 2018 Period
Sows + gilts in breeding Total parts
Born alive/litter
10 Apr – 2 July 961 484 16.3
Q3, 2018 Q4, 2018
3 July – 1 Oct 2 Oct – 3 Jan 2019 946 519 16.4
994 560 17.2
Stillborn/litter 2.1 2.1 1.8 Weaned/litter Suckling days
14.7 14.7 29
28 Days of gestation
‘Empty’ sow days/litter Days to first cover
115 27 5
31
115 14 5
Litters/sow/year 2.1 2.29 Weaned piglets/sow/year
33.7 ▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 35, No. 6, 2019
15.2 28
115 11 5
2.32 35.3
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