Low crude protein diets supplemented with amino acids:
an efficient tool to improve piglet health and welfare while optimizing performance
By Aude Simongiovanni, William Lambert and Herman Claassen, Ajinomoto Animal Nutrition Europe (AANE) Summary
In the current context of decreasing the use of antibiotics and zinc oxide, low crude protein (CP) diets supplemented with amino acids (AA), play a fundamental role in improving piglet health and welfare. Thanks to a new customized AA-based approach developed by Ajinomoto Animal Nutrition Europe (AANE), low CP diets can easily be implemented to tackle this challenge and reduce post-weaning diarrhea (PWD), while optimizing animal performance. Increasing importance is given to the health and welfare aspects
of livestock, with a high pressure from the market and customers for sustainable animal products both from a health and a welfare perspective. The regulatory and consumer pressures on products like antibiotics and ZnO force the industry to identify innovative strategies to overcome health challenges. Once management factors are thoroughly controlled, other elements are crucial to ensure a good animal health and welfare. Among them, protein and AA nutrition play a fundamental role.
Low CP diets to reduce post-weaning diarrhea in piglets
Post-weaning diarrhea is a common condition in piglet production. Many factors, like the young age at weaning and the sudden change of diet and housing, contribute to the increased stress level of piglets. As a result, PWD often occurs, causing morphological and functional alterations of the small intestine, and therefore reducing nutrient absorption. This problem does not only influence performance, but also piglet
health and welfare status. Through a meta-analytical approach based on the compilation of the results of 26 published articles including 34 trials, AANE quantified the effect of low CP diets on the incidence of
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PWD in piglets (Luise et al., 2021). This nutritional strategy, when carefully applied, allows a significant reduction (P < 0.0001) of piglets faecal score by 3% for each point of CP reduction (Figure 1).
Mode of action of low CP diet on health and welfare
Gut health is central to maintain a good overall health status and optimal performance of livestock. Gut health relies on different pillars among which are microbiota balance (the intestinal bacterial population is abundant and diverse with a high contribution of beneficial bacteria at the expense of pathogenic ones) and immune fitness (the immune system is able to respond in a proportionate manner to a challenge). Lowering dietary CP level supports these two pillars by reducing
the excess of AA and undigested N reaching the hindgut. On one hand, less substrates are available for pathogenic bacteria to grow, thus reducing their proliferation. On the other hand, harmful compounds produced during fermentation of non-digested AA such as biogenic amines, ammonia and other molecules such as phenols or P-Cresol are reduced. Thanks to AANE meta-analytic approach, it was quantified
that each point of CP reduction decreases ammonia concentration in the piglet hindgut by 5% (P < 0.0001). In addition, a decrease in the expression of the inflammation markers TLR-4 in the gut was quantified at 11% for each point of CP reduction (P < 0.0001), that is synonymous of a smaller investment of energy and AA in maintaining a highly stimulated immune system. Some studies also reported beneficial effects of low CP diets marked by an increased abundance of tight junctions, proteins involved in sealing gut mucosa cells together and signs of better gut integrity and lesser bacterial translocation.
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