Project
Gut2Go
Pigs are exposed to several challenges over time, such as dietary transitions, social interactions, new environments, and handling procedures. Weaning is commonly seen as the largest stressor, since it concerns multiple stressors simultaneously. This is a concern for sustainable pig production, as it reduces animal welfare and productivity, is associated with intestinal disease risk (post-weaning diarrhoea) and increases the need to Template — March 2023 version2 use antibiotics. Reducing the dependency of antimicrobial usage in pig farms is key to combat antibiotic resistance in humans and animals.
Pigs are exposed to several challenges over time, such as dietary transitions, social interactions, new environments, and handling procedures. Weaning is commonly seen as the largest stressor, since it concerns multiple stressors simultaneously. This is a concern for sustainable pig production, as it reduces animal welfare and productivity, is associated with intestinal disease risk (post-weaning diarrhoea) and increases the need to Template — March 2023 version
2 use antibiotics. Reducing the dependency of antimicrobial usage in pig farms is key to combat antibiotic resistance in humans and animals. Early-life proof-of-concept studies have shown the ability to prepare piglets (i.e. pigs from birth up to a body weight of approx. 23-30 kg) forseveral challenging conditions, including weaning and to exert life-long effects via early-life programming. However, the application of early-life strategies in practise is still limited due to gaps in practical applicability or unknown potential life-long effects. Moreover,
although more and more studies acknowledge the link between nutrition, the gut and the brain (i.e., microbiome-gut-brain axis), literature often lack to report both behavioural as well as gastro-intestinal and microbiome effects simultaneously of tested interventions, enabling the correlation between these dynamic parameters. The aim of the PPP proposal Gut2Go is to study the effect of early-life strategies on piglet development from birth to slaughter under practical conditions with undocked pigs, making use of latest technology with camera networks and artificial intelligence (AI) to evaluate the activity and welfare of the pigs. The project focuses on evaluating the effect and interaction of hygiene, feeding and enrichment strategies in the stage of TLR6 on microbiome succession, welfare and performance to prepare piglets for future challenges. The result will be early-life strategies that improve pig health and welfare without a trade-off in terms of efficiency. At the end of the project, the strategies will be ready to be used in practice and new insights for final market applications will be yield. The strategies are expected to contribute to a sustainable pig sector by 1) stimulating natural behaviour of pigs, indirectly stimulating the transition from docked to undocked tails, 2) by improving gastro-intestinal and microbiome maturation in piglets, which contributes indirectly to reducing antimicrobial usage and antimicrobial resistance in animals and humans, 3) by maintaining or improving productivity while implementing sustainable concepts, and 4) by evaluating the potential of AI technologies to
monitor welfare of pigs housed in practical conditions using animal-based indicators