The challenge of sustainability in animal production Today, our agricultural and livestock production systems are under great pressure due to global warming and climate change. The livestock industry faces the great challenge we have called sustainability and, together with the challenge of improving animal welfare, we have a great responsibility to reduce its impact on…
Diarrhoea in weaning piglets, a challenge Today piglet weaning remains a critical point in pig production. Weaning in intensive pig production systems occurs at an age when the piglet is physiologically immature, both digestively and immunologically. Thus, the separation from the mother, the introduction to a new environment and the disappearance of mother’s milk from…
Although arginine is an essential amino acid for piglets and is necessary to obtain maximum performance at different stages of pig production, for a long time this amino acid has been considered as non-essential for this species. As a result, arginine requirements in pig diets have not been established in a precise way. As in…
Arginine is an amino acid that intervenes in the synthesis of protein for muscle growth. It also plays other multiple metabolic functions: it is the substrate for the biosynthesis of different molecules of metabolic importance such as nitric oxide, GAA, glutamate, ornithine and proline (Figure 1). Nitric oxide is an important mediator in vasodilatation, contributing…
An early weaning is stressful and results in a gut barrier dysfunction and impaired innate immune responses in piglets’ mucous layer. The interruption of these physiological and immune functions aggravates the appearance of injuries and increases the oxidative stress resulting in diarrhea. DL-Met and HMTBA, both available in the market as a source of methionine,…
Over the last 15 years, the number of piglets born alive has increased significantly in the intensive production systems. This has resulted in an increased heterogeneity of birth weights which is expanded at weaning helped by the failure of the sows’ milk to fully cover the energy needs of the whole litter. It has been…
The feed industry has been working for long on formulating diets based on the ideal protein: so that this combination of amino acids comes as closely as possible to the needs of the animals and therefore optimizes their growth. And the broiler chicken is not an exception. Therefore, manipulation of nutrient composition in order to…