Articles - Nutrition

In this installment, we will discover how heat stress affects the digestive tract of pigs.

Chronic inflammation is one of the main challenges in modern pig production, affecting intestinal health, productive performance, and feed efficiency. In light of increasing pressure to reduce antibiotic use, functional nutrition emerges as a key tool.

The good domestic crop contrasts with global uncertainty: currency, geopolitics, and funds continue to drive prices in the short and long term.

Implementing precision feeding through the use of electronic feeders improves sow and piglet performance while providing economic, environmental, and animal welfare benefits.

Digestive diseases in pigs that were previously addressed individually, targeting a single pathogen, now form a digestive disease complex that we must confront from various angles.

One of the major challenges during weaning is post-weaning diarrhea, impacting nearly 25% of piglets in European countries. A promising strategy to boost resilience and help piglets navigate the stress of weaning can be, among others, the use of phytogenics.

How does heat stress affect our pigs? This four-part question-and-answer series will give us an in-depth understanding of this key aspect of pig production.

Weaning is one of the most difficult periods in a pig’s production cycle. A deeper understanding of the challenges piglets face, as well as the short- and long-term consequences of low feed intake, can help nutritionists formulate their diets to better support growth and improve health.

The market is hyper-reactive, reacting to every piece of news in one direction or another. Let's try to focus on it.

Mammals, such as pigs, have a keen attraction to sweet tastes. They are able to perceive the five basic tastes: umami, sweet, bitter, sour, and salty. Sugars such as sucrose, glucose, and lactose are especially attractive to them. This trait seems to have evolved as a natural mechanism for detecting high-calorie energy sources.

Customs tariffs have major consequences and affect pig farms worldwide.

The use of dietary fiber in sow nutrition is rapidly evolving and is now considered a functional component in nutrition due to its effects on gut functionality, microbiota balance, and the modulation of digestion and metabolism.

Although the large influx of news makes it seem otherwise, it really has only been 50 days since the new U.S. President, Donald Trump, was inaugurated.

Of the pillars of commercial pig production, nutritional management, is based on its impact on the total final production cost. In Brazil, it represented 73.16% of the total production cost in 2024 on average, according to data from CIAS (2024, EMBRAPA). In this way, constantly updating the energy and nutrient requirements needed to optimize production outcomes is a focus of attention and a goal of ongoing scientific research.

Uniformity and quality play a key role in the success of both the feed mill and the farm. The quality of swine feed starts with proper diet formulation, which must meet the animal's nutritional needs at every stage of its life, and a proper mixing process ensures uniform nutrient distribution and directly impacts production performance, animal health and welfare, and economic efficiency.

This data sheet presents a brief compilation of scientific studies that have evaluated the effect of formic acid, lactic acid, and propionic acid on pig gastrointestinal health and production performance at different stages of production.

In today's context of high production costs and increasing pressure from environmental regulations, swine production faces the challenge of balancing production efficiency with the environmental and economic sustainability of the industry. A key factor in this equation is feed particle size, where simple actions available to the producer can achieve significant improvements.

At the risk of being proven wrong by the end of 2025, we will try to break down what we think this year has in store. It's not about using a crystal ball, but rather analyzing the data we already have and weighing its importance. At the end of the year, you can compare and see whether we got it right or missed the mark.

The global swine industry is dynamic and constantly advancing. One of these advancements is the significant increase in sow productivity. This is evidenced by the increase in the number of piglets born and, consequently, in the number of piglets weaned. This progress also poses new challenges, especially regarding the most important superfood on the farm: porcine colostrum. This leads us to ask if improving colostrum quality is possible through specific nutritional strategies.

Beta glucans can boost the vaccinal response, thus helping to achieve an optimal vaccinal response. If they are supplied during enough time to cover the whole vaccination programme this strategy could be an option to improve the vaccine response.

Nutrition plays a major role in the immune response. The interaction of different dietary components with other factors such as environment, health status, and genetics plays an important role in modulating the immune response.

Our experts Sara Mazo and Francisco Ruíz review the economic policies implemented during Trump's first term: protectionism, tariffs, and deregulation of the energy and agricultural sectors.

With current data, we will review the quantitative impact of some of the most relevant factors for sows in the lactation phase.

This year's edition of the Swine Conference in honor of Dr. Allen D. Leman was a special 50th Anniversary event and took place September 21-24 at the Saint Paul RiverCentre Convention Center in Minnesota, USA.