FOTO: PHOTO: BERT JANSEN
NUTRITION ▶▶▶
Good gut reaction relies on early life nutrition
BY DR HAZEL ROONEY, PIG TECHNICAL COORDINATOR, ALLTECH IRELAND T
here is wide interest in improving natural nutritional strategies to promote gut health and development in young pigs, with the aim of maximising their lifetime growth performance and minimising antibiotic use.
But what does the term “gut health” actually mean? Several re- cent articles and reviews have provided generalised criteria for the assessment of gut health in young pigs, which include: • The efficient digestion and absorption of feed; • A stable and suitable microbial population; • An effective intestinal immune system; • The absence of disease; and • A protective and functional gut barrier. If the gut is not healthy and functioning optimally, the pig- let’s overall health, welfare and performance will suffer and, ultimately, so will the producer’s profit margins. Therefore, to give piglets the best possible start in life, producers need to focus on promoting favourable microbial communities within the gut, optimising gut structures to ensure effective nutrient absorption and supporting the immune system, as all of these components are intrinsically linked with gut health.
Early-life nutrition Over the last 40 years, Alltech has conducted extensive re- search studying monogastric gut health and has designed several gut health management programmes that focus on supporting animal performance from birth by promoting fa- vourable bacteria communities, building natural defences and maximising growth. The Seed, Feed, Weed (SFW) concept is one such programme that is designed to modify the gut microbial population to establish favourable and more di- verse microbial populations after birth. Establishing and maintaining a beneficial and diverse gut microbiome in early life is vital in pigs. This is because the first microbes to colo- nise the gut are central to the establishment of permanent microbial communities, which affect the growth performance and health of pigs later in life. The SWF programme supports gut health in piglets in three different ways.
Seeding the gut with favourable organisms It is vital to “seed” the intestine with the correct bacteria as soon as possible after birth. The first organisms to colonise
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Getting piglets off to a healthy start in life can have a significant impact on the health and performance of these animals throughout their lifetimes. The key to achieving this involves establishing a favourable microbial population as soon as possible after birth by focusing on the early-life nutrition of the piglet.
the gut will determine the composition of the flora by creat- ing the micro-environment necessary to establish a complex microbial community and optimal architectural develop- ment. With the right intestinal microflora now in place, pig- lets show improved early growth, feed conversion, uniformity and liveability.
Newly weaned pigs suffer from drastic changes in their intesti- nal physiology.
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