August 22, 2017

Lallemand enters research consortium on reduction of antibiotic use in swine production

A 2016 Nature Microbiology article reported the recent discovery that the swine gut microbiota harbours more than 7.7 million genes.

The impact of gut microbiota on swine health and performance cannot be ignored these days, especially as the industry is being challenged to reduce antibiotic usage and limit the impact of livestock practices that lead to the spread of antibiotic resistance, Lallemand Animal Nutrition says.

The company has been looking into these issues for decades based on its expertise in microbial ecosystems and probiotics. Together with other companies in the swine industry, Lallemand Animal Nutrition is now part of a public-private research partnership led by the French Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA), which is aimed at studying the influence of intestinal microbiota composition on piglet robustness at weaning, within the context of limited use of antibiotics in livestock production: The PigletBiota project.

Publication of the first swine metagenome catalogue in 2016 indicated that many factors could affect pig microbiota. The researchers found the withdrawal of antibiotics as growth promotants in certain countries appeared to have reduced the occurrence of antibiotic resistance genes as compared to countries where antibiotics were still in use. Weaning is a very delicate step in the swine production cycle. It is often accompanied by a decreased growth rate linked to disparate food intake and diarrhoea due to digestive disorders that might be associated with bacterial population disequilibrium (i.e. dysbiosis) and/or opportunistic intestinal infections. During this period, the prophylactic use of antibiotics is still very frequent to limit piglet morbidity and mortality. In this context, the PigletBiota project, which gathers INRA scientists and industries from both animal feeding and swine breeding sectors, aims to study the physiological and genetic bases of piglet sensitivity at weaning, including its microbiota, as a prerequisite to identify actions to adapt animals and swine production systems to a reduction of antibiotic use.

In practice, about 1,000 animals will be genotyped, clinically surveyed and measured for various traits related to production, immunity and stress. On the microbiota side, their faecal microflora will be analysed before and after weaning. The objective is to estimate the influence of the two types of parameters (animal genetics and microbiota) and their interplay, and to integrate these in order to develop robust indicators of weaning sensitivity.