Research: Much to gain if nursery diets match digestive capabilities.

Apr 24, 2023

Previous nursery feeding logic told us to feed nursery pigs based on their weaning weight. That heavier pigs had more advanced guts and could handle a more advanced diet. New research involving Nurture™, Cargill’s young pig program, shows weight isn’t the main factor in how we should be feeding pigs; we need to look at the digestive capabilities, and that is tied to their age.

Tremendous changes occur in a young pig’s digestive capabilities between seven and 35 days of age. “Until this point, the piglet’s immune system has relied heavily on colostrum and maternal antibodies from the sow,” according to Sabrina May, Pork Tech Application Lead, Cargill.

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Video: Stress as a Nutrient Thief - Dr. Sarah Pearce

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Dr. Sarah Pearce, Research Animal Physiologist with USDA ARS, explains why stress can act as a nutrient thief in pigs. She discusses gastrointestinal health, barrier integrity, inflammation, feed efficiency, stress interactions, and emerging biomarkers that may help predict performance challenges before they occur. Listen now on all major platforms!

Click here to read the full research article: https://academic.oup.com/af/article/1...

"Stress can steal calories and nutrients because energy normally used for growth is redirected toward immune activation, gut repair, and other costly survival responses."

Meet the guest: Dr. Sarah Pearce / sarah-pearce-phd-3a5881a5 earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences from Iowa State University and currently serves as a Research Animal Physiologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service. Her research focuses on gastrointestinal physiology, nutrition, stress biology, immune function, and productivity in pigs and poultry. Learn more from Dr. Sarah Pearce on the Swine Nutrition Black Belt Podcast, available on all major platforms.