Evaluation of the Prevalence and Risk Factors for Undernutrition in Hospitalized Dogs

Hospitalized dogs are predisposed to undernutrition, which can potentially affect outcome. This study evaluated the prevalence of undernutrition in hospitalized dogs (measured as loss of body condition score, BCS and body weight, BW) and studied the risk factors that affect nutritional status, and outcome (discharge or death). Data was collected prospectively during 9 months from 500 hospitalized dogs with a hospitalization length longer than 24 h in a veterinary teaching hospital in Spain. The BCS and BW changes were modeled using multiple linear regression and outcome was modeled using logistic regression. The risk factors studied were energy intake, hospitalization length, initial BW and BCS, age, sex, severity of clinical signs, department of admission, fasting or nutritional interventions, and the presence of anorexia, vomiting or diarrhea at admission. Most of the dogs (84.0%) consumed less than 25% of their energy requirements and only 3.4% of the dogs met these requirements. The majority of hospitalized dogs maintained their BCS (78.2%) and BW (77%) during hospitalization. Older patients (P = 0.040), higher initial BCS (P < 0.001), and vomiting at admission (P = 0.030) were associated with a decrease of BCS status during hospitalization. BCS was also decreased in patients with low energy intake, particularly in patients with hospitalization length longer than 3 days (P < 0.001). Both longer hospitalization length (P < 0.001) and vomiting at admission (P = 0.004) were also associated with a decrease in BW. Dogs that consumed their theoretical energy requirements [P < 0.001; Odds Ratio (OR) 0.95, 95% CI: 0.92 to 0.98], and had a higher initial BCS (P < 0.001; OR 0.39, 95% CI: 0.22 to 0.63) had a lower odds of dying. Anorexia at admission (P < 0.001; OR 5.67, 95% CI: 2.23 to 15.47) was associated with a higher risk of death. The results from this study support the finding that undernutrition is relatively common during hospitalization, with age, hospitalization length, decreased energy intake, and vomiting at admission as risk factors for undernutrition. Furthermore, an association was found between inadequate energy intake and death

Value of simplified lung lesions scoring systems to inform future codes for routine meat inspection in pigs

peer-reviewedBackground Across the European Union (EU), efforts are being made to achieve modernisation and harmonisation of meat inspection (MI) code systems. Lung lesions were prioritised as important animal based measures at slaughter, but existing standardized protocols are difficult to implement for routine MI. This study aimed to compare the informative value and feasibility of simplified lung lesion scoring systems to inform future codes for routine post mortem MI. Results Data on lung lesions in finisher pigs were collected at slaughter targeting 83 Irish pig farms, with 201 batches assessed, comprising 31,655 pairs of lungs. Lungs were scored for cranioventral pulmonary consolidations (CVPC) and pleurisy lesions using detailed scoring systems, which were considered the gold standard. Using the data collected, scenarios for possible simplified scoring systems to record CVPC (n = 4) and pleurisy (n = 4) lesions were defined. The measurable outcomes were the prevalence and (if possible) severity scoring at batch level for CVPC and pleurisy. An arbitrary threshold was set to the upper quartile (i.e., the top 25% of batches with high prevalence/severity of CVPC or pleurisy, n = 50). Each pair of measurable outcomes was compared by calculating Spearman rank correlations and assessing if batches above the threshold for one measurable outcome were also above it for their pairwise comparison. All scenarios showed perfect agreement (k = 1) when compared among themselves and the gold standard for the prevalence of CVPC. The agreement among severity outcomes and the gold standard showed moderate to perfect agreement (k = [0.66, 1]). The changes in ranking were negligible for all measurable outcomes of pleurisy for scenarios 1, 2 and 3 when compared with the gold standard (rs ≥ 0.98), but these changes amounted to 50% for scenario 4. Conclusions The best simplified CVPC scoring system is to simply count the number of lung lobes affected excluding the intermediate lobe, which provides the best trade-off between value of information and feasibility, by incorporating information on CVPC prevalence and severity. While for pleurisy evaluation, scenario 3 is recommended. This simplified scoring system provides information on the prevalence of cranial and moderate and severe dorsocaudal pleurisy. Further validation of the scoring systems at slaughter and by private veterinarians and farmers is needed

Predicting Productive Performance in Grow-Finisher Pigs Using Birth and Weaning Body Weight

peer-reviewedThis study aimed to (1) investigate the effect of birth and weaning body weight (BW) on performance indicators of grow-finisher pigs and (2) estimate birth and weaning BW cut-off values in order to identify slow growing pigs (SGP). Pigs (n = 144) were classified as SMALL (0.9 ± 0.13 kg) or BIG (1.4 ± 0.20 kg) at birth and re-classified as SMALL (5.4 ± 1.6 kg) or BIG (6.3 ± 1.91 kg) at weaning. Individual BW was recorded bi-weekly, and feed intake was recorded on a daily basis. Average daily gain (ADG) and feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and days to target slaughter weight (TSW) were calculated. SMALL–SMALL pigs had lower ADG (p 0.05). Pigs weaned at <3.7 kg BW would likely be SGP. Pigs born at ≥1.1 kg BW or weaned at ≥6.4 kg BW are more likely to reach TSW at 22 weeks of age. The results suggest that birth BW might not be the best predictor for subsequent performance, as some small-born pigs were able to catch up with their bigger counterparts. The cut-off values identified could be used to design specific management and nutritional strategies for SGP

Delaying pigs from the normal production flow is associated with health problems and poorer performance

peer-reviewedBackground Delaying pigs from advancing through the production stages could have a negative impact on their health and performance. The objective of this study was to investigate the possible implications of delaying pigs from the normal production flow on pig health and performance in a farrow-to-finish commercial farm with a self-declared All-In/All-Out (AIAO) management. Results Three flows of pigs were defined, flow 1 (i.e. pigs that followed the normal production flow; 8 weeks in the nursery stage, 4 weeks in the growing stage and 8 weeks in the finisher stage), flow 2 (i.e. pigs delayed 1 week from advancing to the next production stage) and flow 3 (i.e. pigs delayed >1 week from advancing to the next production stage). Flow 3 included higher proportions of pigs from first parity sows and of lighter birth weights. When the 3 flows were matched by parity and birth weight, pigs in flow 2 were 3.8 times more likely to be lame prior to slaughter compared with pigs in flow 1. Similarly, pigs in flow 3 were more likely to be lame prior to slaughter, 4.5 times more likely to present pleurisy, 3.3 times more like to present pericarditis and 4.3 times more likely to have their heart condemned at slaughter compared with pigs in flow 1. Additionally, carcasses from pigs in flow 3 were 10 kg lighter compared with carcasses from pigs in flow 1. Conclusion Delayed pigs were more affected by disease and were lighter at slaughter. Besides animal welfare issues, these findings could represent considerable economic loses for pig producers. In practice, delaying pigs from the normal production flow translates into higher feeding costs, increase number of days to slaughter and increased labour requirements reducing production efficiency for the pig operation. In farrow-to-finish farms an ‘all-forward’ policy (i.e. no pig is left behind from stage to stage and a split marketing approach is applied when sending pigs to slaughter) might be more easily adhered to.This project was supported by the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) grant 14/S/832. Alessia Diana was supported by the Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Fund

Big (pig) data and the internet of the swine things: a new paradigm in the industry

peer-reviewedImplications • Big data collected on farms can be transformed into useful information to improve decision making and maximize productivity. A swine management system consisting of tools (software and devices), with a protocol and standard operative procedures, can generate the necessary information for the decision-making process. • New technologies such as electronic feeders and artificial intelligence systems capturing big data will provide a better understanding of animal requirements and behavior, increasing efficiency and sustainability. • Biosecurity can be improved using tracking devices for farm staff, recording movements real-time to decrease disease risks and consequently, improve health and productive performance

High levels of standardized ileal digestible amino acids improve feed efficiency in slow- growing pigs at late grower- finisher stage

Publication history: Accepted - 4 July 2021; Published online - 6 March 2022.Slow-growing pigs negatively affect production efficiency in conventional pig farms by increasing the occupation time of the facilities and being a limiting factor for the All-In/All-Out swine production systems. This subset of pigs is usually managed with the rest of the pigs, and their nutrient requirements may not be fulfilled. The purpose of the present study was to compare the productive performance of slow- and fast-growing pigs to different standardized ileal digestible (SID) amino acids (AA) dietary levels at late grower–finisher stage. A total of 84 pigs were weighed, tagged, and classified as slow-growing (SG; n = 48; 24.1 ± 1.38 kg) or fast-growing pigs (FG; n = 36; 42.7 ± 1.63 kg) at 11 weeks of age. Pigs were housed in mixed sex pens (n = 8 SG+6 FG/pen) equipped with feeding stations to record daily feed intake per individual pig. Pigs were assigned to three dietary treatments resulting in a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement at 15 weeks of age. Isoenergetic diets were formulated by increasing the ideal protein profile based on the following SID lysine (Lys) levels: 0.92%, 1.18% and 1.45%. Pigs were weighed bi-weekly until 21 weeks of age. Fast-growing pigs were 33.7 kg heavier, gained 255 g/day and consumed 625.5 g/day more than SG pigs (p 0.05). However, feed conversion ratio was 0.3 lower for SG pigs fed 1.45% SID Lys/AA compared to SG pigs fed 0.92% SID Lys/AA (p = 0.002). Feed conversion ratio was not different within the FG pigs’ dietary treatments (p > 0.05). The efficiency of SG pigs may be improved when dietary SID AA levels are increased from 0.92 up to 1.45% SID Lys/AA. Thus, nutrient requirements may vary depending on growth rate at the same age, and SG pigs may require higher dietary SID AA levels than FG pigs to achieve similar productive performance.Teagasc Walsh Scholarship. Grant Number: 0415, Open access funding provided by IReL WOA Institution: Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority Blended DEAL: IRe

Blood parameters as biomarkers in a Salmonella spp. disease model of weaning piglets

peer-reviewedBackground The weaning pig is used as an experimental model to assess the impact of diet on intestinal health. Blood parameters (BP) are considered a useful tool in humans, but there is very scarce information of such indicators in the weaning pig. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the use of different BP as indicators in an experimental model of salmonellosis. Methodology Seventy-two 28-day-old piglets were divided into four groups in a 2x2 factorial arrangement, with animals receiving or not a probiotic combination based on B. infantis IM1® and B. lactis BPL6 (109 colony forming units (cfu)/d) and orally challenged or not a week later with Salmonella Typhimurium (5x108 cfu). Blood samples of one animal per pen (N = 24) were taken four days post-inoculation for the evaluation of different BP using an I-stat® System and of plasmatic concentrations of zinc, iron and copper. Principal findings Results reported marginal deficiencies of zinc in piglets at weaning. Moreover, plasmatic zinc, copper and iron presented good correlations with weight gain (r 0.57, r -0.67, r 0.54 respectively; P < 0.01). Blood electrolytes (Na+, Cl- and K+) decreased (P < 0.01) only when the performance of the animals was seriously compromised and clinical symptoms were more apparent. Acid-base balance parameters such as HCO3-, TCO2 and BEecf significantly correlated with weight gain, but only in the challenged animals (r -0.54, r -0.55, and r -0.51, respectively; P < 0.05), suggesting metabolic acidosis depending on Salmonella infection. Glucose was affected by the challenge (P = 0.040), while Htc and Hgb increased with the challenge and decreased with the probiotic (P < 0.05). Furthermore, correlations of Glu, Htc and Hgb with weight gain were observed (P < 0.05). Overall, BP could be regarded as simple, useful indexes to assess performance and health of weaning piglets

Predicting Chemical Composition and Apparent Total Tract Digestibility on Freeze-Dried Not Ground Faeces Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in Pigs

Publication history: Accepted - 19 June 2023; Published - 24 June 2023.The present study aimed to compare NIRS results using freeze-dried ground or not ground (FDG or FDNG) faeces to predict faecal chemical composition and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) coefficients. Two different batches of pigs were used (n = 20 mixed sex pens/batch; 11 pigs/pen; Duroc × (Large White × Landrace)). The first batch of pigs (B1; 50.1 ± 3.44 kg body weight (BW)) was used at 13 wks of age and the second batch (B2; 87.0 ± 4.10 kg BW) was used at 18 wks of age. For both B1 and B2, pens were assigned to five diets formulated to obtain a control [10.03 MJ of net energy (NE), 160.0 g of crude protein (CP), and 9.5 g of standardized ileal digestive (SID) lysine (Lys) per kg of feed], low protein (132.0 g CP and 7.5 g SID Lys), high protein (188.0 g CP and 11.5 g SID Lys), low energy (9.61 MJ NE/kg), and high energy (10.45 MJ NE/kg) diets. After a 10-day adaptation period, one faecal sample was collected daily from each pen floor during 6 days in both B1 and B2 (n = 120/batch). Faecal samples were freeze-dried and analysed via NIRS as FDNG and FDG faeces. Dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), CP, gross energy (GE), fat, and ATTD coefficients were analysed/calculated. The NIRS calibrations were evaluated by cross-validation, splitting the data in four random groups, or using the leave-one-out method. For both FDNG and FDG faeces, coefficients of determination for calibration (R2cv) and residual predictive deviation (RPD) values were: close to 0.9 and 3 for DM and CP, 0.7–0.8 and ≥2 for OM and GE, 0.6 and <2 for fat, and 0.54–0.75 and ≤2 for ATTD coefficients, respectively. CP was better predicted using FDG faeces (p < 0.05), while DM and OM ATTD were better predicted using FDNG faeces (p < 0.05). In conclusion, NIRS successfully predicts faeces’ chemical components and ATTD coefficients of nutrients using FDNG or FDG faeces.Jordi Camp Montoro was supported by the TeagascWalsh Scholarship Scheme grant-in-aid project Introducing new feeding programs and facilities for Irish finishing pigs ref 0415. David Solà-Oriol is supported by the UAB-Banco de Santander Talent Programme. Ramon Muns is supported by the Department of Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Affairs of Northern Ireland, under the Evidence and Innovation project Towards precision feeding: a precise and cost-effective feeding system (ref.: 18 1 08)

Effect of space allowance and mixing on growth performance and body lesions of grower-finisher pigs in pens with a single wet-dry feeder

Publicationhistory: Accepted - 17 December 2020; Published online - 6 January 2021.Background: Low space allowance (SA) and mixing may result in reduced growth performance (GP) and animal welfare issues because of adverse social behaviours directed to pen mates. This could be exacerbated in pens with single space feeders owing to social facilitation of feeding behaviour. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of SA and mixing on GP and body lesions (BL) in pens with one single space wet-dry feeder. Results: Two experiments were conducted on grower-finisher pigs from 10 to 21 weeks of age. In Exp1, pigs (N = 216) were assigned to three SA; 0.96m2/pig (n = 6 pens; 10 pigs/pen; SA96), 0.84m2/pig (n = 6; 12 pigs/pen; SA84) and 0.72m2/pig (n = 6; 14 pigs/pen; SA72), in a randomized design. In Exp2, pigs (N = 230) were used in a 2 × 2 factorial randomized design considering SA and mixing as treatments. Pigs were assigned to two SA; 0.96m2/pig (n = 10 pens; 10 pigs/pen; SA96) and 0.78 m2/pig (n = 10; 13 pigs/pen; SA78) and were either mixed or not at the entry to the finishing facility. GP was not affected by SA (P > 0.05) in either experiment. In Exp2, non-mixed pigs were 5.4 kg heavier (P < 0.001), gained 74 g more per day (P = 0.004), consumed 101.8 g more of feed per day (P = 0.007) and tended to have higher feed efficiency (P = 0.079) than mixed pigs from 11 to 21 weeks of age. Number of BL was affected by SA in both experiments. In Exp1, SA72 pigs had 74.4 and 97.4% more BL than SA96 and SA84 pigs at 20 weeks of age respectively (P < 0.01). In Exp2, SA78 pigs had 48.6, 43.6 and 101.3% more BL than SA96 pigs at 12, 16 and 21 weeks of age respectively (P < 0.05). Mixing did not affect the number of BL from 12 to 21 weeks of age in Exp2 (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Mixing had a considerable effect on growth performance thus, strategies to avoid or mitigate mixing should be considered. Although space allowance had no effect on growth performance, high number of body lesions in the lower space allowance indicates that space allowances equal or below 0.78 m2/pig are detrimental to the welfare of pigs despite following the EU legislation.Jordi Camp Montoro was supported by the Teagasc Walsh Scholarship Scheme grant-in-aid project Introducing new feeding programs and facilities for Irish finishing pigs ref. 0415. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Blood and faecal biomarkers to assess dietary energy, protein and amino acid efficiency of utilization by growing and finishing pigs.

Publication history: Accepted - 20 June 2022; Published online - 4 July 2022Background: Diet evaluation and optimization is a slow and expensive process and it is not possible to do it at a farm level. This study aimed to use the blood serum metabolite (BSM) and faecal volatile fatty acid (VFA) profles as potential biomarkers to identify changes in protein, amino acid and energy dietary content in growing and fnishing pig diets at farm level. Results: Two studies were conducted. The frst study (S1) included 20 pens of 11 pigs (87.0±4.10 kg; 18 weeks old) assigned to 5 diets: control (C1), high or low crude protein (HP1 and LP1, respectively), and high or low net energy (HE1 and LE1, respectively). The second study (S2) included 28 pens of 11 pigs (41.3±2.60 kg; 12 weeks old) assigned to 7 diets: control (C2), high or low crude protein (HP2 and LP2, respectively), high or low amino acid (HA2 and LA2, respectively), and high or low net energy (HE2 and LE2, respectively). Pigs were followed for 10 (S1) and 20 (S2) days, and blood and faecal samples were collected at 20 (S1) and 14 (S2) weeks of age. Data were analysed using gen‑ eral linear models and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Urea nitrogen showed the best results as a biomarker. Urea nitrogen was higher in pigs fed high protein diets, HP1 (13.6±0.95 mg/dL) and HP2 (11.6±0.61), compared to those fed low protein diets, LP1 (6.0±0.95) and LP2 (5.2±0.61; P<0.001), showing good discrimination ability (Area under the curve (AUC)=98.4 and 100%, respectively). These diferences were not observed between diets LA2 (6.5±0.61) and HA2 (8.7±0.61; P>0.05; AUC=71.9%), which were formulated based on the ideal protein profle but with no excess of protein. Creatinine, triglycerides, branched-chain fatty acids, albumin, propionic acid, and cholesterol showed diferences between at least 2 diets but only in one of the studies. Conclusions: Urea nitrogen showed high accuracy to detect excess of crude protein in growing and fnishing pig diets. Other biomarkers like BCFA showed promising results and need to be further studied.Jordi Camp Montoro was supported by the Teagasc Walsh Scholarship Scheme grant-in-aid project Introducing new feeding programs and facilities for Irish finishing pigs ref 0415. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript