NEWS ▶▶▶ Predicting best temperatures for piglets
The study, called “Prediction of Optimum Sup- plemental Heat for Piglets” won the award for using a smart and sustainable system for tem- perature control during the lactation phase. The partnership included researchers from São Paulo State University (UNESP), in Brazil, and Cornell University, in the United States. The sci- entists developed a system that uses innova- tive solutions to determine optimal supple- mental heat for piglets. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Transactions of ASABE and was consid- ered the best work of the year in the category “Plant, Animal & Facility Systems”, which in- cluded more than 500 papers. The researchers wrote in their abstract: “In this study, we determined optimum supplemental heat requirements (supplied by heating lamps) for piglets based on energy balance as a function of air temperature and animal body weight.” In doing so, the combination ensures animal welfare, sustainability and energy efficiency. The researchers concluded that for air
Why do pigs benefit from copper?
temperatures in the range 15–19°C, the pre- dicted optimum supplemental heat was 266– 344W and 44–128W for piglets weighing 1kg and 20kg, respectively. The predicted optimum supplemental heat was roughly 200W lower for piglets at the end of the farrowing cycle (assuming a weight of 20kg) than at birth (as- suming a birth weight of 1kg). The research was mostly carried out in a unit in Jaboticabal, São Paulo state, Brazil.
How infectious is ASFv in feed exactly?
The research was carried out at IRTA-CReSA in Spain, in cooperation with functional proteins producer APC. It was recently published in the peer-reviewed online journal PLOS One. The re- searchers hoped to determine if commercially collected liquid porcine plasma contaminated with ASFv, and fed for 14 consecutive days, would infect pigs. To that end, they mixed commercially collected liquid porcine plasma with the serum from an ASFv experimentally infected pig. The reason for this study was connected to publications indicating that contaminated feed and porcine-origin feed ingredients may be considered risk factors for spreading ASF. The researchers used liquid porcine plasma in- stead of spray-dried porcine plasma. The use of non-treated liquid plasma would guarantee a high titre of live ASFv. In study I, the researchers mixed contaminated liquid plasma in commercial mash nursery feed. In total two groups of ten pigs from a commercial farm free of Porcine Reproductive
and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) received feed for 14 consecutive days, providing the virus to each pig at a concentration of 104.3
TCID50 /pig/day.
In study II, only the positive control treatment was tested again with another group of ten naïve pigs weaned at four to five weeks of age. The pigs were provided feed mixed with ASFv inoculated liquid porcine plasma at a daily concentration on feed of 105.0
TCID50 /
pig/day. The research team wrote that all pigs in the trials remained healthy for both the 14-day treatment period and the subsequent obser- vation periods. They did not observe any clini- cal signs of disease, fever, viraemia or sero- conversion. Tissue samples collected from necropsied pigs in study I did not contain ASFv either. The team concluded that, in these experiments, unprocessed liquid plasma con- taminated with ASFv mixed on commercial feed and fed for 14 consecutive days did not infect pigs.
The research showed that copper does not change fat and energy absorption from the diet. Instead, the element seems to enhance pigs’ ability to utilise fat after absorption, re- sulting in increased energy utilisation of the entire diet. Professor Hans H. Stein is co-author of a re- cent study in the peer-reviewed Journal of Animal Science. He said, “Our results indicate copper hydroxychloride is enhancing meta- bolism of fat, and that’s how the pigs get more energy. And that, we believe, can ex- plain why pigs have better feed conversion rates when we feed this copper source in the diets.” In the study, Prof Stein and his collaborators fed 32 pigs weighing15kg one of two diets. Both diets primarily contained corn, soybean meal and DDGS, but: • The control diet contained only 20mg of copper chloride/kg.
• An experimental diet was identical, but also contained 150mg of copper hydroxy- chloride/kg.
Pigs consuming the experimental diet experi- enced greater average daily gain and gain-to- feed ratio, representing better feed conversion and economic savings for producers. Prof Stein commented, “We saw greater expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism and li- pid utilisation in the liver, adipose tissue and, to a lesser degree, in the muscle. This indicates that dietary copper may affect signalling path- ways associated with lipid metabolism by im- proving the uptake, transport and utilisation of fatty acids.”
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▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 36, No. 7, 2020 33
PHOTO: UNESP
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