Hog industry encouraged to focus more on nutrition

Some basic areas of pig nutrition are still poorly understood, Prairie Swine Centre nutrition researcher Dan Columbus told the Animal Nutrition Conference of Canada. “Research is very hard to do in sows. It takes a long time. It’s expensive,” said Columbus, while explaining why he thinks sow diet formulation is so crudely done. “Overall the recommendations are outdated and largely … based on models.” Columbus said sow nutrition and the functioning of low birthweight pigs aren’t understood well within the hog industry and by nutritionists. The needs of sows and small pigs may not be met so results are worse than necessary. Low birthweight pigs are often assumed to grow slowly and poorly simply because they are small and therefore tend to eat less than bigger pigs. However, Columbus said studies have shown that even adjusting for different feed intakes, low birthweight pigs do worse in growing and in fighting disease. They have poor feed efficiency. They have worse heart health. The