Nutrition strategies in the post-weaning period are geared towards providing high quality diets (i.e., inclusion of animal-based protein sources) to mitigate the effect of weaning stress and immature digestive and immune systems. Some studies suggest that the inclusion of animal-based protein sources may not be necessary, but other research suggests that pigs fed a plant-based diet vs. a diet containing animal-based proteins in the nursery may be more susceptible to subsequent disease challenges. We have shown previously that providing pigs with a blend of functional amino acids (FAA) at 120% of NRC (2012) requirements improves growth performance and immune status of pigs during an enteric disease challenge (i.e., Salmonella). In this trial, weanling pigs were fed a diet containing only plant-based (PB) proteins or including animal-based (AB) proteins and either containing a basal amino acid profile (FAA-) or supplemented with FAA (methionine, threonine, and tryptophan at 120% of requirements; FAA+). After the 31-day nursery period, pigs were placed on common grower diet and, after a 7-d adaptation, were inoculated with Salmonella and monitored for 7 d post-inoculation.
Our findings show that simple, plant-based nursery diets may have a negative effect on pigs during a subsequent disease challenge. Further, when plant-based diets were supplemented with FAA above estimated requirements for growth, the negative effects of Salmonella on growth performance were reduced.
Animal protein-based nursery diets and functional amino acids improve performance and health status of weaned pigs (full article)
