The gut revolution: Conquering post weaning diarrhoea with a ROI of 1:5, is it possible?

In the dynamic landscape of pig farming, adaptation is key. Since the very beginning, European pig producers have embraced a journey of innovation and sustainability, which has put us at the forefront of welfare and environmental regulations. But let's be clear—this isn't about bans or limitations; it's about progress and evolution.

Reflecting on the last three to four decades, we have collectively learnt invaluable lessons on how to produce more and be more efficient. As time passed, the focus shifted to other areas, such as animal welfare, antibiotics, Zinc oxide, and carbon footprint reduction. As pioneers in sustainable farming, European pig producers have always risen to the challenge, recognising that reducing the use of certain products doesn’t mean compromising performance or animal welfare.

Through a collaborative effort with researchers, nutritionists, and industry experts, European pig producers have explored alternative strategies to support piglet health and growth. We've unlocked many possibilities from fine-tuning nutrition (protein reduction to levels below 16%) and optimizing management practices (increasing temperature, cleaning, and disinfection) to embracing innovative feed additives. It is always the dream to find one solution product or component that will help in reducing post-weaning diarrhoea, we kind of had that with Zinc oxide, which had multiple functions, unfortunately, we haven’t yet found one product that will replace it with all of its functions, but we have several products that could target each of them.

Desirable functions	Alternatives
Antimicrobial effects	Probiotics, organic acids and essential oils
Improved intestinal morphology	Butyrate
Anti-inflammatory effect and activation of immune system	Immunomodulators

But enough with the alternatives, we will focus on each individual group in the next articles where on top looking at the different options on each group we would like to share some experiences and lessons learnt from the Europe and abroad on reducing post weaning diarrhoea. Let’s start today with an example in UK in collaboration with Writtle University college and presented at ESPHM 2023.

Set-up

Farm located in the UK semi-commercial trial facility:

3 Week batch farrowing – side by side trial
Weaning age 28 days
380 Piglets used in the study (190 control – 190 treatment)

The trial's objective was to compare a diet that included probiotics, encapsulated organic acids, and immunomodulators against a positive control with zinc. The main reason why a positive control was used is because a second part of the objective was to find a combination that would benchmark the best product on the market, although it cannot be used anymore.

Diets

Probiotic (Pro)– Bacillus sp. PB6 to promote and maintain the natural positive gut flora and minimize the risk posed by Clostridia.

Encapsulated Organic Acids (EOA)- Encapsulated organic acids with proven mode of action against E.Coli

Immunomodulator (IMM)- beta-(1,3)- glucan to help modulate the damages caused by inflammation and stress cause after weaning

Diets fed were as follow:

Table 1

Group	Diet 1 – 14 days post weaning	Diet 2 – day 43 to 70 post weaning)
Positive Control	Basal diet (2,500 PPM Zn)	Basal diet
Treatment	Basal diet +200g/t (IMM) + 1kg/t (Pro) + 2kg/t (EOA)	Basal diet +200g/t (IMM) + 500g/t (Pro)

Measurements:

Mortality
Weight and average Daily Gain (ADG)
Faecal samples scores at 28, 42, 56 and 70 days, faecal scores following Perez-Calvo et al 2019 method.

Results:

No difference was observed in mortality, which is a positive result comparing the diet to the gold standard.
With Diet 1 there were no significant differences in final weight and ADG as it can be seen in table 1.
Final body weight at day 70 significantly increased by 880g p<0.05 at the end of the trial, showing a positive effect on Diet 1 facing the weaning challenges and an advantage on Diet 2 increasing the performance. Refer to figure 1

Figure 1 Weight at 28d (weaning) and 70d (end of trial)

Overall, from weaning to day 70 there was a significant increase in 22g/day (490g/day vs 512g/day) p<0.05.
With diet 2 we saw significant differences in ADG with a 48g/day (p<0.05) increase from day 42 do 70. Refer to table 2

Table 2 Average daily gain for different time periods

ADG (g/day)	Positive Control	Treatment	Difference	Sed	P value
28-42 d	329	318	-18	9.73	NS
28-56 d	416	428	+12	7.67	NS
28-70 d	490	512	+22	7.3	P=0.003
42-56 d	503	538	+35	14.07	P=0.013
42-70 d	560	608	+48	9.69	P<0.001
56-70 d	636	678	+42	14.89	P=0.006

No significant differences were seen in the faecal analysis.

Financial implications

If we consider the worst-case scenario that the lower ADG, which was 22g/day, remains from day 28 (weaning) until day 130 (Slaughter), we will get an extra 2.25kg at slaughter or roughly 2.5 days less to market. At current market prices, the new solution will break even by selling 0.2kg extra per pig or rearing them 1/3 of a day faster. Just focusing on performance up to day 70 can have a return on investment of 1:5!

To sum up, a combination similar to the one described is worth considering! If you want to know more about similar alternatives, contact us!

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