XII - 12th International Symposium - Digestive Physiology of Pigs

Digestive
Physiology
of Pigs
It is well documented that the nutritional status of exocrine
pancreatic insufficient (EPI) patients supplemented with
porcine pancreatic enzymes is greatly improved. However,
behavioral changes during the therapy have never been
studied. The present study investigated behavioral changes
in total EPI pigs where the feed was supplemented with
pancreatic-like enzymes of microbial origin, in addition to
the effect on growth. A 2 × 4 crossover-randomized study
was used to test the effect of enzyme supplementation EPI
pigs that underwent pancreatic duct-ligation. After 6 weeks
of recovery, the study started including 2 control and 2
microbial pancreatic-like enzyme feeding periods of 10 d.
At d 7 and 10 of each experimental period, behavior was
monitored during 24 h and feed consumption and body
weight were recorded. Behavioral observations focused on
the pigs’ position: lying down/passive, sitting or standing/
active and were expressed as percent activity during 24
h. Body growth was totally inhibited during the recovery
period, while during the study, the mean body weight of
the pigs increased from 10.5 ± 1.1 to 14.0 ± 1.4kg (P <
0.01), despite enzyme feeding only every second week.
Importantly, we found that EPI pigs were more active when
fed microbial enzymes (19% /24h) then when fed control
diet only (16% /24h, P < 0.01). Microbial pancreatic-like
enzyme supplementation improved the growth of the
EPI pigs, but also increased their activity. This behavior
contradicts the generally accepted norm according to which
satiety reduces human or animal motility.
Key words: behavior, pancreas, enzymes
3014 Feed intake, rather than digestion is the growthlimiting
factor in poor performing piglets. S. P. Paredes*
1 , A. Awati 1 , A. J. M. Jansman 3 , H. M. J. van Hees 1 , M.
W. A. Verstegen 2 , and W. J. J. Gerrits 2 , 1 Nutreco Research
and Development, Boxmeer, The Netherlands, 2 Animal
Nutrition Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The
Netherlands, 3 Wageningen UR Livestock Research, Lelystad,
The Netherlands.
Variation in body weight gain during the nursery period has a
large economic impact in pig production. Understanding the
reasons for variation in animal performance and the factors
that limit growth could result in management strategies to
reduce this variation. To this aim, 2 distinct sub populations
(Poor performers, P; High performers, H) of clinically healthy
pigs were selected at 3 weeks post weaning (~6 weeks of
age) based on an equation including BW at birth, weaning, 3
wk post weaning and sex. At 6 wk of age, P pigs (6.8 kg BW,
SE 0.14) and H pigs (12.2 kg BW, SE 0.14), were housed
individually in a high hygiene research facility and provided
with high quality palatable diet (175 g/kg CP; 10.6 MJ NE;
13.5 g/kg AID Lys) until 10 wk of age. Pigs had ad libitum
access to feed and water. Apparent ileal (slaughter) and total
tract nutrient digestibility were measured. It was observed that
fractional growth rate (i.e., ADG expressed as percentage of
mean BW) was lower for H pigs than for P pigs (3.0 vs 3.3%;
P < 0.01). ADFI was higher for H pigs (275 g/d higher; P
< 0.001) than for P pigs throughout the 4 wk experimental
period, while feed efficiency was not different. At the end of
the experimental period, H pigs were heavier compared with
XII INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON
DIGESTIVE PHYSIOLOGY OF PIGS
121
Session V
P pigs (30 vs. 19 kg BW), had greater body length (73 vs.
62 cm) and head circumference (49 vs. 43 cm), all P < 0.05.
Apparent ileal digestibility (0.78, 0.80 and 0.81 for DM, GE
and N, respectively) and total tract digestibility (0.87, 0.87 and
0.84 for DM, GE and N, respectively) were similar for P and
H pigs. In conclusion, when compared with high performers,
piglets identified as poor performers continued their poor
performance during individual housing and optimized rearing
conditions until 10 wk of age. The substantial difference in
BW at 10 wk was related to differences in feed intake rather
than to digestive utilization or feed conversion efficiency. We
can deduct from these observations that the determinants for
body weight at the end of the nursery period are already set
during the first weeks of life.
Key words: growth, limiting, digestion
3015 Efficacy of prebiotics on lactose digestibility,
whole body protein metabolic status and growth performance
in replacing antibiotics in weanling pigs fed
corn, soybean meal and dried-whey powder based
diets. M. Hayhoe,* T. Archbold, Q. Wang, X. Yang, and M.
Fan, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
This study was conducted to determine effects 4 prebiotic
supplements on lactose digestibility, protein metabolic
status and performance of weanling pigs in comparison with
2 control diets containing an antibiotic growth promoter or
without antibiotics. Six experimental diets were corn (40%)
and SBM (28%) based and supplemented with fish meal
(9%) and dried whey powder (20%). Diet 1, being a negative
control, was the basal diet, containing no antibiotics and
supplemental prebiotics. Diet 2, being a positive control,
was formulated by adding an antibiotic lincommix 44 at
0.10%. Diets 3 to 6 were formulated to contain 0.75% of
4 test prebiotics of inulin, β-glucan, resistant cornstarch
and Fibersol-2, respectively. Titanium oxide (0.30%) was
included as a digestibility marker. A total of 144 Yorkshire
pigs, at the age of 21 d with an average initial BW of 9.7
kg, were allocated to the 6 diets for 21 d according to a
randomized block design. Initial and final BW, PUN and
ADFI were measured. Fecal samples were collected on
d 11. Data were analyzed by using SAS procmixed model
and Dunnett’s test. There were no differences (P > 0.05)
in ADG, ADFI, feed to gain ratio, PUN and the lactose
digestibility between each of the 4 prebiotic treatment
groups and the antibiotic group or the negative control
group, respectively. Furthermore, there were no differences
(P > 0.05) in these endpoints between the antibiotic and the
negative control groups. Total tract lactose digestibility was
measured to be at 100% in these diets, consistent with the
previously estimated whole gut lactase digestive capacity
in weanling pigs. The lack of antibiotic effects on total tract
lactose digestibility would suggest that lactose (10.7%) in
these diets was enzymatically digested by the host in the
weanling pigs. These results suggest that supplemental
prebiotics or feed antibiotics were not effective for further
improving growth performance and body protein utilization
in the weanling piglets under our experimental conditions.
Key words: prebiotics, antibiotics, weanling pigs