Dan Columbus, nutrition researcher at Prairie Swine Centre, presented his work regarding advances in nutrition for pig health at the 2024 PSC Producer Meetings. Nutrient requirements for development and immune response will be different from those for growth performance. In his research, Dan focused on the functional value of amino acids (AA) for disease. Dan looked at the effect of dietary fibre and immune stimulation on threonine requirements in growing pigs. He also did a set of research trials looking at the effect of a blend of functional AA, consisting of 120% of the NRC (2012) requirements for threonine, methionine and tryptophan, in nursery pigs challenged with Salmonella. Adjusting dietary amino acid content can improve growth performance, development and immune response in a disease challenge, but the positive effects will depend on the time supplementation is given, the protein source, and the birth weight of the pigs.
Advances in nutrition for improved pig health (full article)
