Nathalie Quiniou

Gestating sows are often fed a single diet throughout their gestation cycle, leading to situations of nutrients deficiency or excess at the individual level. The purpose of this study was to characterize, over 3 consecutive cycles, the impact of a precision feeding (PF), i.e., dietary supplies adjusted at individual level in terms of quantity (energy intake) and quality (standardized ileal digestible (SID) lysine (Lys) intake), on gestating sows’ productive performance, feeding behavior, environmental outputs, and health status compared with sows fed a conventional feeding (CF, i.e., fixed SID Lys intake). At the start of the trial, 2 batches of 20 Landrace × Large White gestating sows were allocated to one of the 2 feeding strategies (PF vs. CF), based on their parity (1, 2, or 3 and more), body weight, and backfat thickness (BT) 3 days after insemination. The PF strategy consisted in mixing with automatic feeders 2 iso-energetic diets (9.8 MJ/kg of net energy with 3.3 and 8.5 g SID Lys/kg, respectively) in variable proportions at individual and daily levels, whereas for the CF strategy these proportions remained constant throughout gestation (73% and 27%, respectively, resulting in an SID Lys concentration of 4.7 g/kg). Sows were followed over 3 consecutive gestations and the sows remained allocated to the same strategy throughout the study. Some sows were culled before the end of the study and were replaced by other sows who therefore performed only 1 or 2 gestations during the study. Thus, 106 gestations and lactations from 51 sows were fully studied and their data analyzed. The PF strategy allowed the sows to reach more closely the expected BT values at farrowing across cycles than the CF strategy (P < 0.001). The PF sows consumed 16% less SID Lys per gestation than the CF sows (P < 0.001), resulting in a 4% improvement in N efficiency (P < 0.001), with no impact on performance at farrowing (P > 0.10). The sows consumed their daily ration in a single visit whatever the feeding strategy (P = 0.41), but CF sows spent more time in the feeder in cycles 2 and 3 (P < 0.001). Thus, compared to the CF strategy implemented by farmers, the individual and daily nutritional supplies implemented with the PF strategy were more efficient in enabling sows to achieve body condition objectives at farrowing over the long term, also with a reduced SID Lys intake and an improved N efficiency without negative impact on farrowing performances. In commercial farms, sows are often fed a single diet throughout gestation. This results in a mismatch between feed intake and individual needs, which can lead to complications during farrowing. Precision feeding is a way of providing the sows an individual daily intake in terms of quantity and nutritional quality, by blending different diets using automatic feeders. We investigated the long-term effects of precision feeding of gestating sows, on their performance and feeding behavior. The results showed that precision feeding enabled farrowing body condition targets to be reached over time. Compared to a conventional feeding strategy, amino acid intake was reduced by 16% per gestation with precision feeding, enabling a 4% increase in nitrogen efficiency, with no impact either on the number or average birth weight of born alive piglets. Whatever the feeding strategy applied, sows consumed their daily ration in a single visit accounting for only 18% of the visits to the automatic feeders. In contrast, 92% of the visits to the drinking troughs were devoted to drinking. The economic and environmental long-term benefits of precision feeding are nuanced when compared to the conventional feeding, depending on how this latter strategy is applied.

Cet article fait le point sur les connaissances relatives aux besoins nutritionnels des porcs mâles non castrés chirurgicalement, dans la perspective de mieux valoriser leur potentiel de croissance pour une meilleure efficience alimentaire, tout en veillant à maintenir un faible risque d’odeurs de verrat et à préserver les qualités de la carcasse et de la viande. Les raisons pour lesquelles une alimentation à volonté des mâles entiers doit être privilégiée, plutôt qu’un rationnement alimentaire, avec des aliments plus concentrés en acides aminés, sont présentées, notamment pour optimiser leur potentiel de développement de la masse protéique. Elles s’appliquent également aux porcs mâles immuno-castrés, qui peuvent être nourris comme les mâles entiers jusqu’à la deuxième vaccination contre les odeurs de verrat. Au-delà, leurs besoins en acides aminés essentiels sont nettement inférieurs à ceux des mâles entiers et les apports peuvent être diminués. Le risque d’odeurs de verrat de la viande est un problème crucial pour l’aval qui doit être maîtrisé en amont dans la production de mâles entiers. À cette fin, les impacts de l’incorporation de divers ingrédients alimentaires susceptibles de réduire les teneurs en scatol sont discutés, tant pour ce qui concerne leur efficacité que les mécanismes mis en œuvre. Avec une très faible adiposité de carcasse, les mâles entiers présentent une teneur en lipides intramusculaires inférieure à celle des femelles et des mâles castrés chirurgicalement, ce qui pénalise la qualité organoleptique de la viande. Par ailleurs, les acides gras du tissu adipeux des mâles entiers peuvent être fortement insaturés, ce qui modifie l’aptitude technologique au séchage des produits. La prise en compte de ces critères dans les cahiers des charges peut orienter les recommandations alimentaires.

The increase in prolificacy at weaning is less than that at farrowing due to increased loss of piglets. As a result, farmers focus more on solutions that can prevent difficult parturition or a decrease in milk production. The body condition of the sow influences both factors. A model developed to estimate energy requirements of gestating sows was used to monitor the body weight and back fat thickness (BT) at farrowing, through the creation of a demonstration farm that included 7 batches of 24 sows. Daily feed allowance was adapted to characteristics of each sow at the beginning of gestation. Based on data collected since 2005 from 5140 gestations in different housing systems, the BT averaged 19.3 mm at farrowing, with no significant differences among housing systems. Within-batch variability in BT ranged from 3–4 mm and is expected to improve in the future by using sensors to automatically weigh and measure physical activity towards a real-time assessment of energy requirements. The next step in reducing feed costs and environmental impacts is to consider amino-acid and phosphorus requirements in the precision-feeding strategy.

Le coût élevé des sources de phosphore et l’impact d’un apport en excès de cet élément sur l’environnement conduisent à restreindre les apports en phosphore aux besoins chez la truie reproductrice. Au contraire, les sources de calcium sont peu onéreuses et, en l’absence de contrainte de teneur maximale sur cet élément, sa teneur peut être assez élevée dans les aliments. Phosphore et calcium doivent pourtant être apportés de façon équilibrée. Un modèle est proposé pour estimer en pratique les besoins en calcium de la truie reproductrice sur la base des connaissances disponibles, beaucoup plus limitées pour cet élément que pour le phosphore. Le modèle ne peut pas être utilisé pour simuler les effets d’une carence en l’apport de l’un ou l’autre minéral en raison des difficultés d’évaluation du degré de minéralisation osseuse qui conduisent à ne pas prendre en compte ce critère. Les tables de valeurs nutritionnelles des matières premières permettent de raisonner l’apport en phosphore sur une base digestible, mais ce n’est pas encore le cas pour le calcium. Une hypothèse de digestibilité est donc appliquée dans le modèle pour estimer le besoin en calcium total, qui devra être actualisée (de même que le calcul du besoin d’entretien) dès que les tables de valeurs des matières premières permettront de formuler les aliments sur la base du calcium digestible. Ces réserves étant posées, le modèle est utilisé pour quantifier le besoin en calcium selon le stade physiologique de la truie et son niveau de production (prolificité, production de lait).

This paper reviews the current knowledge on the nutritional requirements of entire male and immunocastrated pigs to obtain an efficient growth, low boar taint level, and good carcass and meat quality. We present the reasons for offering entire males ad libitum access to the diets in order to optimize their protein deposition potential. Boar taint is one of the major issues in the production of entire males; therefore, the impact of various skatole- and indole-reducing feed ingredients is discussed regarding their efficiency and the possible mechanism affecting skatole and indole production in the hindgut. Entire males have lean carcasses, so their intramuscular fat content can be lower than that of surgical castrates or females and the adipose tissue can be highly unsaturated. The possible nutritional strategies to counteract these effects are summarized. We conclude that immunocastrates can be fed similarly to entire males until the second vaccination. However, due to the metabolic changes occurring shortly after the second vaccination, the requirements for essential amino acids are markedly lower in immunocastrates than in entire males.

Precision feeding (PF) with the daily mixing of 2 diets with different lysine content (high (H) or low (L)) was previously reported for growing pigs to reduce protein intake and N excretion compared with a conventional feeding (CF) based on a single diet (C). Using a simulation approach based on farm data, the objective of the present paper was to describe and evaluate a decision support system for the PF of gestating sows allowing the daily distribution of a tailored ration to each sow. Two datasets, 1 of 2,511 gestations (farm A) and 1 of 2,528 gestations (farm B), reporting sows’ characteristics at insemination and objectives at farrowing were used as inputs for a Python model. This model, mainly based on InraPorc, calculates the nutrient requirements of each sow over gestation and simulates the impact of PF in comparison to CF. Simulated diets L, H, and C contained 3.0, 6.5, and 4.8 g/kg of standardized ileal digestible lysine (SID Lys) and 2.0, 3.3, and 2.5 g/kg of standardized total tract digestible phosphorus (STTD-P), respectively. The influence of farm, parity, gestation week, and their interactions, on calculated SID Lys and STTD-P requirements was analyzed applying a mixed model. The calculated SID Lys and STTD-P requirements increased markedly in the last third of gestation (P < 0.01) and were higher for primiparous than for multiparous sows, unless after week 14 for STTD-P requirement. The calculated SID AA and mineral requirements were lower for farm B than farm A (respectively, 2.94 vs. 3.08 g/kg for SID Lys and 1.30 vs. 1.35 g/kg for STTD-P, P < 0.01). On average, feed L represented 86% and 92% of the feed projected to be delivered by the PF strategy in farms A and B, respectively. Compared to CF, average calculated dietary SID Lys content was lowered by 27% and 32% with PF, for farms A and B, respectively, while average calculated dietary phosphorus content was lowered by 13% and 16%. The simulated proportions of sows in excess and deficient in SID Lys were reduced with PF. Compared to CF, the PF strategy allowed for a 3.6% reduction in simulated feed cost per sow during gestation, and reduced nitrogen and phosphorus intake (by 11.0% and 13.8%, respectively) and excretion (by 16.7% and 15.4%, respectively). To conclude, these simulations indicate that PF of gestating sow appears to be relevant to meet the amino acid requirement while reducing feed cost, and supplies and excretion of nitrogen and phosphorus.

"Feeding entire male pig with amino acid supplies adapted to requirements of entire or castrated male" published on 28 Nov 2014 by Wageningen Academic.

"Effect of feed presentation on growth performance of entire male pig and boar taint risk" published on 28 Nov 2014 by Wageningen Academic.

Variability in bodyweight (BW) among pigs complicates the management of feeding strategies and slaughter. Including variability among individuals in modelling approaches can help to design feeding strategies to control performance level, but also its variability. The InraPorc model was used to perform simulations on 10 batches of 84 crossbred pigs each to characterise the effect of feeding strategies differing in amino acid supply or feed allowance on the mean and variation in growth rate. Results suggested that a feed restriction reduces the coefficient of variation of BW at first departure for slaughter (BW1) by 34%. Growth performance obtained from an in silico simulation using ad libitum and restricted feeding plans was compared with results obtained in an in vivo experiment on a batch of 168 pigs. Pigs were offered feed ad libitum or were restricted (increase in feed allowance by 27 g/day up to a maximum of 2.4 and 2.7 kg/day for gilts and barrows, respectively). A two-phase feeding strategy was applied, with 0.9 and 0.7 g of digestible lysine per MJ of net energy (NE) in diets provided before or after 65 kg BW, respectively. Actual growth was similar to that obtained by simulation. Coefficient of variation of BW1 was similar in vivo and in silico for the ad libitum feeding strategy but was underestimated by 1 percentage point in silico for the restriction strategy. This study confirms the relevance of using simulations performed to predict the level and variability in performance of group housed pigs.

Preweaning piglet mortality is largely attributed to the incidence of low birth weight and birth weight variation within the litter. Therefore, developing strategies to increase within-litter uniformity of piglet birth weight is important. This study investigated the effects of different feeding strategies based on specific nutrient supplies in sow diet on the within-litter variation of piglet birth weight (BW0). Four batches of highly prolific crossbred Landrace × Large White sows were used. Three dietary treatments were compared: supplies of dextrose during the week before insemination (190 g/d) and of L-arginine (25.5 g/d) from d 77 of pregnancy until term (DEXA, n = 26); a dietary supplementation of L-arginine only (25.5 g/d), from d 77 of pregnancy until term (ARGI, n = 24); and no supplementation to a standard gestation diet (CTL; n = 23). Total born piglets (TB), i.e., piglets born alive (BA) and stillborn piglets, were numbered and weighed at birth and at weaning. Data were analyzed by ANOVA using the MIXED procedure in a model that included dietary treatment (ARGI, DEXA, and CTL), initial parity (1, 2 and 3, 4, and more), and backfat thickness (below or above the average value at the onset of the experiment: 15.7 mm) as the main effects and batch as random effect. The treatment did not influence (P > 0.10) the number of piglets at birth (on average 15.6 ± 3.8 and 14.2 ± 3.6 for TB and BA, respectively) or piglet BW0 (on average 1.48 ± 0.26 and 1.50 ± 0.26 kg for TB and BA, respectively). The coefficient of variation of piglet BW0 (CV_BW0) was less in litters from ARGI sows than in litters from CTL sows and intermediate in litters from DEXA sows (for TB: 21.4, 23.4, and 25.7%, P = 0.08; for BA: 20.6, 22.5, and 25.4%, P = 0.03, in the ARGI, DEXA, and CTL groups, respectively). Irrespective of diet, CV_BW0 was less (P < 0.01) in litters with 16 TB piglets or less than in the largest litters (20.9 vs. 26.5%). Litter growth rate during lactation and litter size at weaning were not influenced (P > 0.10) by dietary treatments. In conclusion, supplementing gestation diet with L-arginine during the last third of pregnancy reduced within-litter variation of piglet birth weight. Combining L-arginine dietary supply with a supplementation of dextrose before insemination provided no additional benefit. Copyright © 2014. American Society of Animal Science .