Win-Weaned
Win-Weaned is an oriented-research project which aims to address several societal demands within the priority ¿Food, bio-economy, natural resources and environment¿. Ruminants and pigs are the two main livestock sectors in Spain and represent an important source of food, employment and wealth in rural areas. However, the viability of any farm depends, to a great extent, on a successful program of rearing new-borns, which implies keeping low mortality rates and feeding costs, but assuring an optimal gut physiological and microbiological development to guarantee high performances in adult life. The current intensive dairy production systems imply a physical separation of the new-born from the dam after birth and a subsequent artificial rearing on milk replacer, whereas piglets received natural lactation on the sow followed by an early weaned (21-25 days). Both situations (artificial lactation or early weaning) often led to productive insufficiencies and health problems during the post-weaning phase which traditionally were limited through a systematic use of antibiotics.
The HYPOTHESIS of this project is that the weaning process of piglets and artificially reared ruminants can be improved through the dietary supplementation with novel natural feed additives to enhance productivity and health and to decrease antibiotic use in farms. This project will evaluate the use of bovine colostrum powder (BCP) alone, or in combination with phytochemicals (PHC) or different types of fatty acids (FAs), to explore their potential synergistic effects. To address this hypothesis, five experiments will be sequentially performed: EXPERIMENT 1, will consist on an in vitro dose-response study in which 12 natural feed additives from BCP, PHC and FAs will be evaluated for their potential to optimize the gut fermentation in young ruminants and piglets prior weaning. EXPERIMENT 2 will evaluate the effects of these feed additives on the gut health using intestinal monolayer cell lines. EXPERIMENT 3 aims to describe the effects of three shortlisted additives to modulate the rumen and hindgut microbiota and its activity using semi-continuous fermenters to mimic the gut of both livestock species at weaning. Finally, the effects of dietary supplementation artificial reared lambs (EXPERIMENT 4) and early weaned piglets (EXPERIMENT 5) with BCP alone or in combination with a selected feed additive will be explored as a strategy to optimize the weaning process. A holistic and interdisciplinary approach will be used integrating expertise from nutrition, physiology, immunity, molecular biology and microbial ecology.
This will allow to link the gut anatomical (epithelium histology), physiological (fermentation and feed utilization) and microbiological development (colonization pattern and microbiome modulation) with the host¿s health (gene expression of gut-health indicators, blood metabolites and disease) and productive outcomes (growth, feed efficiency and homogeneity). The persistency of the effects and the economic implications will also be considered.
If the hypothesis is confirmed, the scientific-technical, economic and societal IMPACT for the ruminant and pig sectors would be very relevant. The applicant TEAM has extensive experience in training and teaching, and intense national and international scientific activity in this field, including close collaboration with the private sector. All these elements are key for the successful development of the project.
