February 26, 2014

 

Adisseo Swine Conference focuses on "New insights in nutrients in pigs"

 

 

 

As world demand for feed raw materials for monogastric and especially swine production continues to increase, better evaluation of their nutrients content and a broader use of additives such as enzymes become essential, as revealed at the 3rd Swine Conference organised by Adisseo in Paris.

 

Pork meat global demand continues to increase in the world, especially in China, explained Jan Peter van Ferneij, from the economic department of Ifip - the French swine institute. In China, pig production is supported by the government, the goal being to satisfy the growing demand of the population. Consequently, Chinese demand for feed raw materials started to disrupt prices.

 

Pierre Sabatier, economist and chairman of the Studies of PrimeView Agency emphasised the fact that the general increase of all commodity prices is due to the entry of China into global trade in 2001. As evidence, between 2001 and 2012, soybean meal prices doubled and fish meal prices increased 3-fold.

 

In this economic environment of scarce and expensive raw materials for animal nutrition, Europe, which imports 33 million tonnes of soybean meal from America every year, must explore new solutions, especially protein sources for feed.

 

Marinus van Krimpen, animal nutrition researcher of the Wageningen University, Netherlands, made a list of potential European protein sources as alternatives for imported soybean products: "conventional" solutions such as oil seeds, legumes, but also new sources such as aquatic protein - algae, duckweeds - or even insects which are protein-rich and fat-rich ingredients.

 

Regardless of alternatives, a precise description of the nutrient content of raw materials is essential. That is why Adisseo has developed the P.N.E. or Precise Nutrition Evaluation - a unique service based on the combination of NIR technology and in vivo and in vitro digestibility tests. Pascal Thiery, technical manager of Adisseo, explained how this service allows the prediction of digestible amino acid content of raw materials for swine nutrition.

 

Besides, the context will lead nutritionists to optimise utilisation of available raw materials.

 

In addition, enzymes, especially xylanases and phytases, become essential. Pierre Cozannet, enzyme researcher of Adisseo, delivered a presentation focussed on the strategic use of exogenous enzymes in pig nutrition. He explained that enzymes are extremely specific for a given substrate, and that associations of different enzyme activities are required to degrade the different types of fibre found in raw materials.

For example, very high fibre content diets for pigs lead to a decrease in performance, as shown by trials presented by Florence Gondret, research director of Inra, France.

 

Dr Gondret demonstrated that, even with high levels of added oil to reach the target energy content of the diet, pigs cannot adjust feed intake to dietary metabolisable energy level, and that both energy and protein metabolisms are affected by dietary energy sources.

 

A focus on methionine in pig nutrition was then presented by Yves Mercier, amino acids research manager of Adisseo. Sulphur amino acids are not the first limiting amino acids for swine production, but several trials carried out across the world show that added methionine has a positive effect on average daily gain of piglets and fattening pigs, on sow milk content, and meat tenderness. Furthermore, HMTBA, the liquid form which is an organic acid, was shown to contribute to acidification for piglets, and improve gut mucosa and digestible absorption ability.

 

Adisseo introduced an electronic version of the updated Rhodimet Nutrition Guide (e-RNG) - an interactive tool which supplies amino acid recommendations for piglets, pigs and sows which vary according to producers' specific conditions and feeding programmes.

 

More than 50 nutritionists attended the 3rd Swine Conference organised by Adisseo on February 3rd in Paris, France, dedicated to swine nutrition. Following the success of this meeting and the positive feedback from customers, Adisseo announced a 4th Swine Conference in 2015.