Dr. Edgar Oviedo: We are here at ISEP with Dr. Luciano Hauschild and he has come with several of his students to present the work that they are carrying out related to swine nutrition. I understand this work is mainly focused on amino acids and protein balance, is that right Luciano? Could you tell us a little more about your work?
Dr. Luciano Hauschild: First of all, I want to thank you for having me, and for the opportunity to talk a little bit about what we are doing in Brasil. I did part of my PhD in Canada where I began a collaboration working with precision nutrition and developing that system. We did many trials, but what we have seen during the validation of this system is that there could be a good opportunity to apply this system under farm conditions. Under such conditions pigs can face many challenges like disease, stress, etc. Taking this into account we began to think what we could do with this type of system to apply it under such conditions where variability amongst animals can increase significantly. Therefore, this is a scenario where precision feeding can work focusing on individual requirements, and we can provide a specific diet in regards to amino acids tailored to the individual. So, we can reduce the costs by maintaining the same levels of performance. What we are presenting here at the conference are the results of different studies that we have carried out, where we evaluated different conditions, different diseases, in terms of what could be the best amino acid profile for those animals. We have come with four students, and will be delivering five presentations later on today. That is mainly the job that we are doing here.
Dr. Oviedo: That is perfect. Luciano, could you tell us a little bit about the benefits that you have observed for swine producers when carrying out this amino acid balancing?
Dr. Hauschild: That is a great question. As I said before, based on our work with precision feeding under farm conditions and based specifically on amino acids, we have seen that variability in pigs increases 10 to 20% more under this type of conditions. When these animals have to cope with any kind of stress. Therefore, we can work with precision feeding systems for these animals based on different amino acid profiles, and we can significantly reduce costs as we are tailoring the diet towards the specific requirements of each individual. So, the main benefit that we have observed is a cost reduction in diets from 10 to 20%, when compared with a conventional system. Another benefit of working with precision feeding, is that we can identify when an individual is faced with a specific challenge. For example, the beginning of the growing phase is a challenging moment for pigs, as they are transferred into new conditions. Therefore, we can provide a specific diet for these animals during this phase. That is another benefit that we have seen in pigs.
Dr Oviedo: One of the papers that you are presenting, is related to heat stress, and how it can affect pig metabolism. Could you tell us amongst the amino acids you have studied, which one can be the most affected when pigs are subjected to heat stress? Or how the balance of amino acids must be corrected under heat stress conditions?
Dr. Hauschild: Yes, that is another great question. We have published several papers regarding this subject, and what could be the best amino acid for heat stress conditions. Of course, we have to evaluate which are the most important amino acids to preserve intestinal integrity, and based on this we have seen that Threonine is an important amino acid. What could be the level to which we could increase Threonine? Some papers mention something in the order of 20% more, where we can see a better response. Betaine is another amino acid that can help pigs to deal with oxidative stress and Tryptophan can also help. We conducted a trial that we will be presenting today, where we increase amino acid levels by 20% under heat stress conditions. However, it was not under constant heat, as it was under cyclic heat stress conditions. In these types of conditions, animal can adapt really fast as they will eat more during thermoneutral conditions. Therefore, under such this cyclic heat conditions we saw no benefits for these amino acid levels. However, under constant heat stress condition we did see benefits for an approximate increase of 20% for the three amino acids I mentioned before.
Dr. Oviedo: Perfect Luciano. Thank you very much for your contribution and we hope to have you in another podcast session for NutriNews International as well as in future webinars. Thank you all!