PARTNER FEATURE ▶▶▶
What drives intake, gut health and performance?
BY TETSKE HULSHOF, RESEARCHER, TROUW NUTRITION D
epending on personal taste, black liquorice, cilant- ro, olives or hot sauce might be an automatic pass when ordering food. Piglets can be just as selec- tive when it comes to what they will and won’t eat.
As consistent feed intake is essential to piglets’ post-weaning gut health and development, understanding the factors that inform their decision to eat is critical when formulating diets. Factors that influence piglets’ feed intake include manage- ment practices such as creep feeding, ingredient quality and safety, innate ingredient preferences, aversions to antinutri- tional factors and the use of feed production technologies to inform somatosensing (mouthfeel). In natural settings, piglets can use their selective behaviour more readily than in production environments where only a single feed is provided. The combination of selectivity and lack of control in feed may reduce or even stop feed intake, especially during stressful periods. Research shows that the consequences of reduced feed intake go beyond disrupting weight gain. A study found that piglets orally infected with Escherichia coli suffered reduced feed efficiency only when their feed intake dropped below a certain threshold, indicat- ing adequate feed intake is essential for minimising the risk of gut health disorders. Poor feed intake can start weaning piglets on a lifelong path for poor production. Research indicates that piglet quality by ten weeks predominately establishes lifetime performance. As improving piglet feed intake can support gut health and performance, it can also support production efficiencies. Maintaining feed intake is related to other key aspects of piglet nutrition, including preventing pathogenic bacterial intake, supporting digestion, strengthening gut barrier func- tion and stabilising microbiota and immune system function. Several practices can support feed intake. From a manage- ment standpoint, providing a piglet-tailored, highly palatable feed prior to weaning is an important training mechanism to establish and encourage post-weaning eating behaviour and helps the digestive system develop. Evaluating feed palatabil- ity criteria is another good practice. The best diet in the world is no good if piglets will not eat it. Considering the following elements of palatability helps pro- ducers ensure they’re providing a palatable feed capable of supporting piglet feed intake.
Piglets can be selective when eating. Especially just after weaning, it can pay off to know what the animals prefer, to encourage feed intake, gut health and good performance. Which aspects should producers take into consideration?
Olfaction Pigs have a sophisticated sense of smell developed to detect nutritious feed ingredients. This ability helps piglets provide a rough check on feed quality – detecting, for example, if lipid oxidation has occurred in a feed. Ensuring feed safety and ingredient quality is a straightforward way to address this fac- tor of feed design. Also, ensuring that there are not off odours in feed by encapsulating fats and through judicious use of antioxidants can help avoid this pitfall.
Taste Piglets have a well-developed sense of taste and more taste buds than most other mammals, which creates a complicat- ed set of taste receptors along the mouth and oral cavity. Piglets can distinguish a range of flavours including sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami; the complex sensory network then interprets these flavours into taste quality. However, the complexity of this system can make it hard to determine how some feed ingredients will be received – especially regarding fibre sources. For example, some types of oats can help stim- ulate feed intake, while other fibrous ingredients may have antinutritional elements that carry a bitter taste and can de- crease feed palatability and intake. Evolutionarily, bitterness in taste can indicate the presence of a toxin. When assessing piglets’ responses to specific, individual feed ingredients, it is possible to establish preferred ingredients including protein sources, cereals and organic acids. Some common ingredients and antinutritional factors, which can decrease feed palata- bility, are beans containing lectins, cottonseed meal which has gossypol, rapeseed meal containing glucosinolates and potato protein containing alkaloids. Additionally, determining how piglets will respond to the taste of any feed ingredient can be made more challenging as the taste acuity for humans and piglets does not always correspond. Some feed ingredient studies have found that humans identify certain sweet compounds, like the artificial sweetener saccharine, much more strongly than piglets do.
▶ PIG PROGRESS | Volume 38, No. 3, 2022 27
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