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As we all continue to feel the effects of the coronavirus pandemic impacting on our personal lives, it is taking its toll on our professional lives also. Tradeshows and events are a stable in the animal feed industry, and they too have suffered postponements, cancellations and in the case of EuroTier this year, switching to a completely new format. EuroTier was due to take place in Nuremburg, Germany back in November, with more than 2,200 exhibitors from 60 countries and over 250,000 people expected to attend in person. With people’s safety more scrutinised in every aspect of life, it was decided that the event would take place on a new digital platform last week.
To coincide with this new format, Tonisity developed their own speaker programme, with the view of delivering a knowledgeable and insightful look at key areas within the production lifecycle of piglets, including the physiology of piglet itself.
Dr. Laura Boyle and Dr. Keelin O'Driscoll, senior researchers from Teagasc in Ireland, introduced how working with pig biology and behaviour improves welfare and could help to reduce pre-weaning mortality. They discussed the common causes of pre-weaning mortality, and how to optimise piglet survival. Piglet survival is not only down to the viability of the piglets themselves but also monitoring of their activity and intervention at key stages of their development.
Professor Richard Ducatelle, Head of the Laboratory of Veterinary Pathology at the University of Ghent in Belgium, author or co-author of more than 650 scientific publications, discussed small intestinal absorption versus small intestinal infection. With higher performance and increased feed intake in piglets, there is more oxidative stress on the gastro-intestinal tract.
Ducatelle explained how bacteria can compete with the host for the nutrients in the small intestine. The absorption of nutrients by the transepithelial transport system must be fast and efficient to prevent bacteria absorbing these nutrients, instead ensuring they are absorbed into the small intestine. The small intestine has an elaborate defence system against bacterial colonisation. The intestinal epithelial cells, along the small intestine, play a key role in the antimicrobial defence. The number of these cells can then determine the length of these villus. It is important to prime these cells, so they are best placed to provide this defence mechanism within the small intestine
Dr. Alfons Jansman, Senior Scientist Animal Nutrition, Wageningen Livestock Research, Netherlands provided and insight into, “Nutrition and intestinal development in young piglets.” Jansman discussed the importance of gut health and development, and reduction of post-weaning diarrhea. He also showed how further optimisation of diets and nutrition for pigs contributes to improvement of gut health and reduction of the use of antibiotics.
Tonisity also presented some of their own solutions during the webinar programme. Mathieu Cortyl, Managing Director for Europe and Asia, presented “Early intervention solutions for improved life performance of pigs." As Professor Ducatelle highlighted, the enterocytes, intestinal cells, play a key role in the absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream. Tonisity has developed Tonisity Px, an isotonic protein drink for pigs, which contains a balanced combination of key nutrients to feed the enterocytes. This helps to stimulate and boost the development of the small intestinal villi, enabling them to better absorb nutrients into the bloodstream. This has positive effects on intestinal health, encouraging consumption of milk and feed, leading to a decrease in pre-weaning mortality, by up to 20% on average.
Tonisity PxW is a new solution, designed to be fed through water lines, increases water intake and supports the gut after weaning, helps to reduce fall behinds and improve post-weaning and fattening performances, up to seven days less to market.
Tonisity’s R&D team of Dr. Ava Firth and Dr. Stefan Buzoianu provided a detailed presentation of their research findings into pre-weaning mortality across different birthweights. There is a common misunderstanding that small piglets have high mortality and heavier pigs will thrive on their own without any intervention. In reality, 68% of piglets that don’t make it to weaning, started off as medium or heavy birthweight piglets. Although small piglets have a higher rate of pre-weaning mortality, they only represent 11% of the population.
You can watch the webinar recording on the Tonisity blog at: https://tonisity.com/blog/.
February 17, 2021 - Tonisity
