Closing the sustainability gap by making it profitable at farm level can be achieved with Vita GP through lower needs for antimicrobials or feed to grow your pigs.
Profitability is a key success factor for sustainable rearing of pigs
Rearing livestock animals in a sustainable way is a necessary but continuously evolving process. Cost-efficient practices are permanently looked for, whether the objective is to comply with regulations, customer demand, or to improve welfare. However, sustainability must go along with equal or improved economical balance of the farm to be maintained over time.
Several ways exist to make pig farming more sustainable. One way can be to optimize the use of antimicrobials to reduce risks of antibiotic resistance. Another way can be to improve diet valorization generally estimated in animals by the Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR), to save raw materials and reduce manure amounts. Doing better in at least one of these items will improve not only the sustainability of the farm, but will also generate savings in expenses for medication or feed.
Vita GP improves performances in various situations
Vita GP contains a combination of medium chain fatty acids with proven strong antibacterial effects associated to a unique health fiber with bacteria binding and flushing capacities. It is a proven solution to fight Lawsonia intracellularis in growing and finishing pigs and the subsequent needs for antibiotic treatments e.g. Tylosin. The reduced antibiotic usages consequently increases the revenue per pig while contributing to lower risks of antibiotic resistance. More recently, Nuscience conducted series of trials investigating the contribution of Vita GP to the FCR in farms with good health status. In a trial involving > 500 pigs growing finishing pigs of comparable starting weight, Vita GP was fed at 2kg/T of feed in starter phase and 1kg/T of feed in growing and finishing phases. Numerically higher average daily weight gain (ADG) was observed despite comparable feed intake (FI), leading to a statistically significant reduction of FCR by -0.11 (p<0.05) in growing phase (Figure 1). This indicates that, in growing period, Vita GP protected digestive tract of pigs from reduced performances, despite no clear signs of stress or challenge.
In a second trial involving again > 500 pigs, administration of Vita GP only during growing phase on top of another gut health functional feed ingredient led to a similar reduction of FCR of -0.15, associated to significantly better feces quality (p<0.05). This observation confirmed the important role played by the combination of MCFA with the health fiber on general gut protection and growth performance and the subsequent improved valorization of the feed.
Turning animal performances into concrete contribution on sustainability
Keeping the digestion of pigs’ diet optimal in later stages is of paramount importance to lower the contribution of feed on pig production costs. For example, reducing FCR by -0.1 all along the fattening period saves about 9 kg of feed per pig. Reducing FCR by -0.2 is of course very challenging, but can save about 18 kg of feed per pig. It means that optimizing feed efficiency of a batch of 1,000 pigs during their fattening period can relieve between 9 T and 18 T of raw materials culture, transport and processing, and finally, costs.
By serving all type of farms, Vita GP closes the sustainability gap on the nutrition and health levels. Its use during growing and finishing phases go beyond coping with regulations. It testifies of a proactive mindset of farms and feed mills to achieve a more reasonable use of antimicrobials and a reduced pressure on the environment, preserving the health of animals and people so as reducing footprint on vegetal and animal agriculture.
