What mineral and vitamin levels to recommend in swine diets? Que níveis de vitamina e mineral são recomendados em rações de suínos?

Minerals, including trace-elements, and vitamins are currently introduced into the pig diet in order to obtain suitable performances for the modern pig genotype bred in confinement. Most of the mineral and vitamin contents of cereals and usual protein compounds are characterized by their poor and variable availability. Supplemental diets are then usually needed. This paper, based on literature data, reviews the pig requirement for minerals and vitamins in order to ensure economic and profitable performance. Recent research has focused on phosphorus due to environmental considerations. The widespread use of microbial phytase has decreased the need for inorganic phosphates. Cereals are particularly deficient in calcium and sodium, consequently limestone and salt are necessary to meet the pig need for these minerals. Zinc and copper are recognized as growth promoting agents but their use at high levels is detrimental to the environment. The pig diets usually contain supplemental contents of iron, manganese, cobalt, iodine and selenium. The need for these elements in pig diets is described individually. Vitamin E and choline represent the most expensive vitamins added. Choline is then usually not incorporated into the pig fattening diet taking into account the choline contents of the raw materials, while vitamin E is included at a lower level than those which improve the meat quality. Our recent research has dealt with increased levels of vitamins added in combination, calculating higher requirement of the modern pig genotype. Fewer improvements have been obtained in this way, suggesting that recommendations proposed by INRA in 1984 are mainly justified.<br>Minerais, inclusive elementos traços, e vitaminas são atualmente adicionados nas rações de suínos objetivando obter performance adequada para genótipos modernos criados em confinamento. A maioria do conteúdo de mineral e vitamina dos cereais e compostos protéicos é caracterizada por sua baixa e variável disponibilidade. Dietas suplementares são então geralmente necessárias. Este artigo, baseado em dados de literatura, revê a exigência do suíno para minerais e vitaminas objetivando assegurar desempenho econômico e rentável. Recente pesquisa tem focado no fósforo devido às considerações ambientais. A propagação do uso de fitase microbial reduziu a necessidade de fosfato inorgânico. Cereais são particularmente deficientes em cálcio e sódio, consequentemente calcário e sal são necessários para atender a necessidade do suíno para estes minerais. Zinco e cobre são reconhecidos como agentes promotores de crescimento, mas sua utilização em elevados níveis são prejudiciais ao meio-ambiente. As rações de suínos geralmente contêm quantidades suplementares de ferro, manganês, cobalto, iodo e selênio. A necessidade para estes elementos nas rações de suínos é descrita individualmente. A vitamina E e a colina são as vitaminas mais caras a serem adicionadas. Consequentemente, a Colina não é incorporada na ração de suínos em terminação, levando-se em conta o conteúdo das matérias-primas, enquanto que a vitamina E é incluída em nível mais baixo do que aqueles que melhoram a qualidade da carne. Nossa pesquisa recente lidou com níveis elevados de vitaminas adicionadas em misturas, calculando exigências mais elevadas dos genótipos suínos modernos. Poucos avanços foram obtidos dessa maneira, sugerindo que as recomendações proposta pelo INRA em 1984 são até hoje justificadas

Impact de l’âge au sevrage sur la prévalence des diarrhées

International audienceThe practice of weaning at 21 days of age has developed considerably in France. The objective of this trial was to study the impact of the age of piglets at weaning (at 21 or 28 days of age) on pig health after weaning under normal or degraded conditions of live. The study was performed in experimental facilities on two batches of 252 piglets from weaning until seven weeks after weaning. A feeding practice with a secure feed during the first 7 days of post-weaning was implemented for pigs weaned at 21 days. Mortality rate was recorded, and diarrhea was assessed by analyzing fecal scores and measuring the dry matter content of the feces. Blood was collected from 160 piglets (to analyze the complete blood count, haptoglobin, antioxidant defense and the production of reactive oxygen species. During the post-weaning period, 47% of piglets were observed to have diarrhea on at least one day, and this percentage was not significantly influenced by age at weaning. The piglets weaned at 21 days of age had a 7-day lag in the onset of diarrhea compared to those weaned at 28 days of age. Animals weaned at 21 days under normal conditions have a higher mortality rate than those weaned at 28 days but not under degraded conditions. These results should be confirmed by other studies

L’efficience nette de conversion des aliments par les animaux d’élevage : une nouvelle approche pour évaluer la contribution de l’élevage à l’alimentation humaine

Dossier : ressources alimentaires pour les animaux d'élevageL’efficience nette de conversion des aliments par les animaux d’élevage : une nouvelle approche pour évaluer la contribution de l’élevage à l’alimentation humain

Environmental impacts of different innovative feeding strategies in pig and broiler farms

Optimization of feeding strategies (S) is an effective option to reduce the environmental impacts of livestock. Itcan be performed, by using multi-objective feed formulation (MOF) to select feedstuffs according to their priceand environmental impacts, and by adapting dietary composition to animal requirements during the rearing period. This study investigates the combination of those feeding strategies on the environmental impacts of pig (P) and broiler (B) productions. Different S for conventional farms were specified in B and for fattening period in P. In P, the S were: 2-phases feeding (S1); multiphase feeding with two (S2) or four (S3) pre-diets, mixed together in different proportions during time; and 2-phases feeding with a reduction of energy (S4) or amino acid (S5) content. In B, the S were: 3-phases feeding (S6) and 3-phases feeding with lysine and energy contents respectively increased and decreased (S7). For each S, feeds were formulated using least-cost optimization (LC) and MOF. The environmental impacts of the kg of BW at farm gate were assessed by Life Cycle Assessment and compared to the reference scenarios: LC-S1 and LC-S6 for P and B, respectively. S with LC formulation showed impacts between -19% and +13% compared to the reference impacts. MOF reduced impacts per kg of feed by up to 30%, and final impacts per kg of BW by 1 to 20%, except for Acidification and Climate Change (S4), and for Land Occupation (S7). Three criteria explain these contrasted results among S and LCA impacts at the kg of BW scale. The first one is the contribution of feed to impacts per kg of BW (34% to 98%). The second one is feed conversion ratio as it reflects the overall efficiency of the system, and thus impacts nutrient excretion and manure gas emission. The last one is nutritional balance of feed (protein, amino acids composition), explaining nitrogen excretion (S2, S3). This study underlines the need for optimizing S while considering simultaneously the consequences on economics and environmental performances at animal scale

Multiobjective formulation is an effective method to reduce environmental impacts of livestock feeds

Environmental and economic performances of livestock production are related largely to the production of complete feeds provided on commercial farms. Formulating feeds based on environmental and economic criteria appears a suitable approach to address the current challenges of animal production. We developed a multiobjective (MO) method of formulating feed which considers both the cost and environmental impacts (estimated via life cycle assessment) of the feed mix. In the first step, least-cost formulation provides a baseline for feed cost and potential impacts per kg of feed. In the second, the minimised MO function includes normalised values of feed cost and impacts climate change, P demand, non-renewable energy demand and land occupation. An additional factor weights the relative influence of economic and environmental objectives. The potential of the method was evaluated using two scenarios of feed formulation for pig, broiler and young bulls. Compared to baseline feeds, MO-formulated feeds had lower environmental impacts in both scenarios studied (-2 to -48%), except for land occupation of broiler feeds, and a moderately higher cost (1-7%). The ultimate potential for this method to mitigate environmental impacts is probably lower than this, as animal supply chains may compete for the same low-impact feed ingredients. The method developed complements other strategies. and optimising the entire animal production system should be explored in the future to substantially decrease the associated impacts

Multiscale influence of feedstuff availability on environmental impacts of feed

Multi-objective feed formulation (MOF) considers both economic and environmental criteria to decrease, through substitutions between feedstuffs (FS), the environmental impacts of feed with a moderate extra cost. Yet, the question of FS availability on the market is crucial. We studied the effect of MOF in different contexts for pig and broilers feeds, and concentrated feeds of cattle productions, in the North West of France (NW). First, feeds were independently formulated for each production with MOF by defining different lists of available FS and maximum incorporation levels, with a flexible availability of FS (NLIM) or a more constrained one (LIM). Then, all feeds for all productions were then simultaneously optimized (NWF) by considering current FS available volumes and total feed volumes produced in the NW territory. For each context (NLIM, LIM, NWF), Life Cycle Assessment impacts of tons of feed were assessed and compared to those of feeds optimized with least-cost formulation. In NLIM-MOF, Climate Change (CC) was reduced by up to 32, 22, 28 and 23% for pig, broiler, dairy and beef cattle productions respectively. In LIM-MOF, lower reductions were achieved (up to 14, 13, 12 and 11% respectively), due to reduced availability of low-impact FS such as sorghum or pea. In NWF, the global CC impact of feed production in the region is reduced by 7%, with a respective reduction of 5, 8 and 8% for pig, broiler and cattle feeds. Maize used in animal feed is partially replaced by wheat and soybean meal by rapeseed meal. The limited availability of FS leads to a huge competition for the choice of FS between feeds and shows the importance of considering the global livestock sector within a territory. Nevertheless, a significative reduction could be obtained with a limited extra cost (around +2% for NWF)

Réduire les impacts environnementaux des produits animaux avec des éco-aliments

L’alimentation du bétail est au cœur des problématiques environnementales des élevages. Pour les porcs et les volailles, elle explique entre 50 et 98% de leurs impacts environnementaux au portail de la ferme. Pour les bovins, leurs concentrés représentent 17% des 12.3 millions de tonnes d’aliments composés produits dans le Grand Ouest. Ainsi, cette étude évalue les bénéfices environnementaux associés à la production d’éco-aliments, c’est-à-dire d’aliments avec des impacts environnementaux réduits. Une base de données a été créée sur les impacts environnementaux de 150 intrants alimentaires du bétail calculés par Analyse de Cycle de Vie. Ces données ont été mobilisées dans une fonction multiobjectif pour formuler les aliments en prenant en compte des critères environnementaux en plus du critère prix habituel. Des bénéfices environnementaux et des coûts liés à ces éco-aliments ont été obtenus pour différentes stratégies alimentaires de porc à l’engrais, de poulet de chair, de vaches laitières et de jeunes bovins, à la tonne d’aliment et au kilogramme de produit. Une mise en œuvre à l’échelle du Grand Ouest considérant tous les aliments composés fabriqués et toutes les filières animales montre, à la tonne d’aliment moyen, une réduction possible du changement climatique de 7% pour un surcoût de 2%.Feeding is central for the environmental aspects of animal production. For pig and poultry, feeds explain between 50 and 98% of the environmental impacts of animal product at farm gate. For cattle, the concentrated feeds account for 17% of the 12.3 million tons of compound feeds produced in the West of [br/] France. This study looked at the environmental benefit of eco-feeds which are feeds with lower environmental impacts. A database was built concerning the environmental impacts of 150 feedstuffs calculated by Life Cycle Assessment. Those data were used in a multiobjective function in order to formulate feed with environmental criteria and the usual cost criteria. The environmental benefits and the costs due to eco-feed were obtained for different feeding strategies of fattening pigs, broilers, dairy cows and young cattle at the scale of the ton of feed and the kilogram of animal product. An implementation at territory scale was also performed in the West of France by considering all the feeds and the animal productions: the results showed for instance a possible reduction of 7% for the impact climate change of the average ton of compound feed for an extra cost of 2%

Welfare barriers and levers for improvement in organic and low-input outdoor pig and poultry production systems

International audienceThe PPILOW project aims to co-construct innovations to improve Poultry and Pig Welfare in Low-input outdoor and Organic farming systems through a multi-actor approach. Its first step was to sum up animal welfare challenges observed in these systems and levers of improvement, from a review of literature data and research projects. Data were completed with information from key informants of the supply chains of poultry meat, eggs and pork in Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Finland. The interviews indicated that the main issues in poultry were: feeding, biosecurity, lack of range use and range management, feather pecking, weather, regulation, flock size or density, predation, bone fractures, lack of robustness, parasitism, pododermatitis, arthrosis, nervousness, water quality, catching and time spent by farmers. The main issues in pig were: feeding, tail biting, mortality, weather, predation, lack of robustness, lack of range use, castration, animal aggressiveness and competition, water quality, range management, human welfare, biosecurity issues, flock size or density, parasitism, insolation burns, joint abnormalities, parturition in freedom and pollution. This information has implemented a participatory approach for proposing welfare-improvement levers. Some issues and potential solutions were included in PPILOW experiments (phytotherapy against parasitism, involvement of animal personality in range use, rearing of entire pig males, genetic selection for reduced piglet mortality, improved farrowing huts for sows and piglets reared on range, avoiding feather pecking in laying hens with intact beaks, avoiding the killing of day-old male chicks etc.), and solution costs evaluated. The results will provide a combination of practical solutions for welfare improvement in Europe. The PPILOW project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement N°816172