Pig producers face many challenges, including high feed costs and disease outbreaks. The three biggest pressures come from:

1. Facing the sustainability challenge and the requirement to comply with regulations to reduce nitrogen and ammonia emissions.
2. Coping with legislation on banning the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) and zinc oxide (ZnO) in pig feed to control diarrhea in weaned pigs, resulting increased gut health challenges and poor immune status.
3. Pig and sow performance below genetic potential due to sub-optimal health, heat stress and poor swine feed quality (not meeting nutrient requirements).

Click here to learn about our solutions that help you master these challenges in pig feed and the swine industry. 

To feed the growing world population, we need to produce more animal protein but in a sustainable and efficient way. One effective method is to lower the dietary crude protein (CP) levels in diets and to balance them with feed-grade amino acids (AAs) for an adequate level of all AAs combined with formulations on a net energy (NE) basis. Replacing a portion of protein with AAs improves nitrogen utilization, reduces nitrogen excretion, and lowers pig feed costs. On average, 1%-point dietary CP reduction results in a 9% reduction in N excretion, and 12% lower ammonia emission which contribute towards more sustainable pig production.

Post-weaning diarrhea is a major challenge for the pork industry, particularly when AGPs and zinc oxide are not used. Feeding low CP diets improves gut microbiota balance and reduces post-weaning diarrhea incidence. Combining low protein diets with extra functional amino acids, probiotics, organic acids, phytogenic and/or beneficial fibers can improve gut integrity, microbiota balance, and immune status, which can be applied as a holistic approach to reduce diarrhea incidence without AGPs and ZnO.

An adequate amount of AAs (nutrients) and energy needs to be supplied in the swine feed to ensure efficient and sustainable pig production. Evonik’s AMINONIR® service, using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, makes it possible to rapidly analyze the composition of AAs and the energy of the raw materials, which can be used for pig and feed producers for a precise feed formulation. Under immune challenge and heat stress conditions, the requirement of some functional AAs including threonine, methionine, and tryptophan relative to lysine are increased. The consultancy provided by Evonik’s swine experts can support in balancing the ideal ratios of these functional AAs based on the challenge faced by the pigs.

Our products & solutions for pig feed and the swine industry can help producers succeed in managing sustainable and profitable pig farms:

Precision nutrition: Quality of dietary protein and energy

• Analysis of AA via NIR (managing AAs variability)
• NIR based energy i.e. AMINONRG (managing energy variability)

Adequate dietary AA and energy supply

• Recommendations (SID AA and NE for various phases)

Efficiency of digestion/absorption of ingested AAs and energy

• SID AA based formulation (managing digestibility and availability)
• Ideal protein concept (managing over/under AAs supply)
• AMINORED (managing impact of heat processing)
• NE based feed formulation (optimizing real energy value)

Gut Health Solutions

• Probiotics, organic acids, phytogenic, spore counts

Nutritional and sustainability consulting

• An integral part of holistic concept to support our customers

A healthy gut, well-functioning digestive tract – which efficiently digests and absorbs nutrients while excluding pathogens – and a balanced microbiota are essential for maximizing pig performance. Different stressors can cause unbalanced microbiota (dysbiosis) and inflammation (leaky gut). Feed additives, including probiotics, prebiotics, functional AAs can directly impact the microbiota population and immune system, affecting the overall gut health.

Our holistic gut health concept allows pig farmers to optimize gut health without AGPs, by combining low protein-precision feeding, functional AAs, probiotics, organic acids, phytogenic and the right level of functional fiber and assessing analyzed data.

We can support you to improve your operations by offering a unique set of solutions. These include the low crude protein diet concept, amino acids portfolio, probiotics, AMINO services, and expert consultancy.

John Htoo, Director Swine at our Animal Nutrition business line, is looking forward to discussing sustainable pig feed topics with you. Give him a call, drop him a line, or connect with him via LinkedIn.