Goes beyond good nutrition, takes team effort
By Ann Hess
From antibiotic resistance and environmental sustainability concerns, the pressure on the swine industry to go “antibiotic-free” has been continuous. However, before removing all antimicrobials from animal systems, Iowa State University Assistant Professor Laura Greiner says the industry needs to have better grasp on the cost and the impact of doing so.
“When we think about antibiotic-free programs, I think a lot of us have been very hesitant in the past. Myself, I know when I've worked with producers who took antibiotics out of the nursery, I've seen a reduced growth rate by about a kilo over a six-week period of time,” Greiner says. “When we listened to some other people talk in the past, we've heard estimates of $5 to $11 loss per pig.”
Changing or removing a technology can also create additional challenges. In a nursery, this could mean issues with diarrhea, infection, decrease in production weight, reduced water and feed consumption, and susceptibility to stress and disease, and all will most likely involve additional diet reformulations.
For diarrhea alone, Greiner says she would be looking at possibly adding prebiotics or probiotics, adjusting ingredients to use different fiber sources such as oats or rice hulls, changing the lactose percentage or working with zinc, copper or organic acids.
“This is not an all-inclusive list, but as nutritionists, these are the first things we're going to run to and start thinking about if somebody approaches us,” Greiner says.
Microbiome differences Adjusting diets isn’t the only solution though for addressing herd health chaIlenges in ABF production. Greiner suggests the industry needs to start thinking more outside the box, “first about genetic selection of parents that have high survivability rates in the expected environment that we're placing them in.”
“We're looking for immunological diversity and function, so this is not nutrition, but this is selecting the animal that is going to be more appropriate for the environment that we're putting them in, and we need to understand the maternal influence to disease management,” Greiner says.
In researched funded by the Iowa Pork Producers Association, Greiner and associates are examining the microbiome differences between gilts and sows, knowing that piglets that come from gilt litters generally have a higher mortality rate and are more susceptible to disease. One of the things they have discovered is a shift in an organism called, "Clostridium Sensu Stricto 1."
“What's interesting about this organism is that we find that pigs that are born as IUGR (intra-uterine growth retardation) pigs, they have a decreased level of Clostridium Sensu Stricto 1, and they actually have reduced harvest weights,” Greiner says. “If we look at some of the data that we have, we can see that in gilts, we have a lower level of Clostridium Sensu Stricto 1. So, does that mean that's part of the reason why our piglets that come from those litters are slower growing and not as thrifty by the time they get to market?”
Another organism to consider is "Ruminococcus 2," Greiner says. Research at the University of Minnesota has shown that if animals have a higher level of Ruminococcus 2 in their gut, they have reduced lung lesions when they are exposed to Mycoplasma Hyopneumoniae.
In the research that Greiner and her team at Iowa State are doing, they also found that the gilts actually had a higher level of Ruminococcus 2. While the herd was going through a mycoplasma break at the time, the naive animals did have a higher level, indicating a higher rate of protection.
“We might need to go farther back in the animal to prepare ourselves to run an antibiotic-free program, back to this, with practices in the field,” Greiner says.
COP comparisons It’s the practices and the players involved that are needed to make a robust, thriving ABF or no antibiotics ever program, says Steve Kitt, swine nutritionist with First Choice Livestock.
“It can’t just be hung on the veterinarian or a nutritionist,” Kitt says. “When these tools that get taken away from us, really the people in the barns taking care of pigs, making sure ventilation's right, feed's right, water delivery, and caretaking of the animals is a big piece of that program.”
Kitt echoes Greiner’s sentiment in understanding the cost and value of NAE/ABF production before implementing.
“Which of these are fads versus here to stay, because if we go spend a lot of time on research, and those sorts of things, is all of that for naught in five years and has the consumer changed their mind?” Kitt says. “As tools are taken away for programs such as NAE and ABF, but it could be lack of zinc oxide, we have to understand the cost of production.”
Kitt cites Aaron Gaines’s presentation at a recent Allen D. Leman Swine Conference, where he estimated 14 to 21% increased COP with a NAE or ABF program. COP comparisons that need to be considered include weaned pig cost, geography and associated transport cost, space cost, burden on other production, staffing needs, milling/feed costs, vaccine and medication costs, as well as the percentage of animals not marketed in the program.
Kitt says producers also tend to take their best flows, growers, people and turn it into NAE production, which is likely to make the conventional portion of their business ( the majority) less successful, and to it’s important not to misinterpret results that might be an effect of people versus lack of antibiotics.
Health and hygiene While the focus is often on gut health when removing antibiotics from a system, Kitt questions if respiratory health should be given more weight, especially with porcine reproductive and respiratory being a major issue.
He also thinks more research needs to be done with biofilms and how they can be impacted by detergent, temperature and washing time.
Kitt points to one case study early in his career, with brand new nurseries and the exact same pig flows and barns.
Over time however they started seeing an extreme uptick in mortality. The ultimate solution ended up being an industrial detergent that could take down the biofilm.
Another hygiene area in the barn is the use of hydrated lime, not limestone, for an effective whitewash program. For good disinfection, Kitt says it’s important to have the right chemical.
Both Kitt and Greiner agree successfully going to a sustainable, cost-productive ABF or NAE system, involves many stakeholders.
“We have to learn that one size does not fit all, and we need to recognize that this is going to be a concerted effort with the veterinarians, nutritionists, production managers and caregivers,” Greiner says.
“It’s going take more than nutritionists and veterinarians to meet the needs of what we're being asked to do with less tools in our toolbox, and clearly management is going to play a big role in that I believe,” Kitt says.
Greiner and Kitt were part of a panel discussion along with Ben Keeble, vice-president of U.S. Production, Sunterra Farms, at the 2020 International Conference on Swine Nutrition.
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