Has genetic selection changed the voluntary energy intake (expressed as energy intake per kg metabolic body weight) in finisher pigs? (Say modern genetics vs decades ago). If yes, which breed? what is the trend? Is it a profitable move for pig producers in a long term?
Thank you.
Dear Fan Liu,
I think this question should be addressed by geneticist, and I am only a nutritionist. Then, I will stay attached to the 'phenotypic' aspects of your question.
It is very clear to me that within a breed or a line, today's pigs are heavier at the same age than pigs of the last decade of the XXth century, as long as they start with similar weaning weight. I would speculate they have an increased appetite and higher nutritional efficiency today. However, the proportion of pigs with very light birth weight and light weaning weight has been increased, then it is a hard guess to generalise to the whole pig population. It is difficult to show nice and recent data to illustrate this because I have little access to nutritional studies ran with pure breeds. With crossbreds, we cumulate many biases: sire and dam genetics may vary with time ; weaning age today is not what it used to be 25 years ago ; in France we feed the pigs restricted most time ; feed formulation changed drastically as well over the decades. Energy units being difficult to compare, I prefer here to describe something I observed with standardised ileal digestible lysine: comparing a trial performed in 2015 to a trial performed in 1991 with fattening pigs (25 to 110 kg live weight), I could show that the lysine requirement to produce 1 kg of gain was higher in 2015 in the finishing period (85-105 kg), these pigs being as efficient as pigs from 1991 between 50 and 80 kg. Hope this helps.
Dear David Guillou ,
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts. Appreciated.
Very interesting finding on the increased lysine requirement (per kg gain basis) that you observed. Do you think it was related to the increased protein:fat deposition rate in the modern breed pigs?
Would you be able to share how the group-housed finisher pigs are restricted fed in France? Do you reduce pigs' appetite or restrict feeder access?
Back to my original question on feed intake trend, the nuclear herd with measured feed intake data over decades would be helpful for analyzing the trend of feed intake. Looking forward to more answers.
Thanks again.
Kind Regards,
Fan
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