NEW NON-INVASIVE FAECAL BIOMARKERS OF INTESTINAL INFLAMMATION IN POST-WEANNING PIGLETS (BI-*NOIN)
The Animal Nutrition and Welfare Service -SNiBA- participates in the BI-*NOIN project based on the development of new non-invasive fecal biomarkers to alleviate and prevent digestive problems in piglets.
Weaning is a very stressful time for the piglet, which results in a loss of health status providing the ideal environment for the proliferation of gastrointestinal disorders, inflammation and colonization of pathogenic bacteria that trigger post-weaning diarrhea. For more than 20 years, zinc oxide (ZnO) has been widely used at therapeutic levels in the swine industry as an effective way to prevent this type of disease.
However, since June 2022, the use of medicinal doses of ZnO is not authorized in the European Union, so the development of new strategies, both preventive and therapeutic, is urgently required to control this problem, since there is currently no clear alternative that can replace this compound. In fact, the solution may not depend on feed formulation alone, but should be given a multifactorial approach considering biosecurity, handling, facilities and equipment.
In this context, the general objective of the project is to develop methods to identify new non-invasive fecal biomarkers of intestinal inflammation in piglets that allow us to anticipate the development of pathological and subclinical processes for the effective application of palliative measures. liative or preventive. The tools and strategies derived from the project are expected to reduce mortality rates by around 1-2%, improve nutritional efficiency by 20-30 units, and reduce the current use of antimicrobials by 30 %.
The use of faeces as a sampling point represents a very important advantage over other types of samples, such as blood, due to the ease of obtaining it and the fact that it does not involve stress for the animal.
To achieve this goal, a consortium composed of Vall Companys, as the main Spanish pig producer, MEVET (veterinary laboratory) and the research groups Animal Nutrition and Welfare Service (SNiBA) and Veterinary Clinical Biochemistry Service (SBCV) has been formed from the Autonomous University of Barcelona who have extensive research experience in the field of animal nutrition and veterinary biochemistry.
The publication is part of the project CPP2021-008315, funded by MCIN/*AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union “NextGenerationEU”/*PRTR