Effective weaning: a Pre-and post-weaning nutritional approach

The weaning period represents a piglet’s transition from dependence on the sow’s milk to a diet of solid feed. This is a critical stage in the piglet’s life. However, weaning can lead to various health issues – post-weaning diarrhea is one of the most common ones, which often leads to the first use of antibiotics. Therefore, proper management during the pre- and post-weaning periods is essential to a piglet’s health: not only does it contribute to reducing stress and disease risks, but it also ensures optimal performance in piglets.

In the natural environment, piglets naturally wean over a period of several weeks. During this period, the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) develops fully in order to digest solid feed. In commercial pig production, weaning typically occurs around 21 to 28 days of age. At this point, however, the piglets’ digestive system is still immature, and thus they have more difficulty digesting solid feed. This abrupt weaning process leads to an impaired intestinal morphology, such as decreased villus heights, which results in lower feed digestibility, lower feed intake, and an increased risk of post-weaning diarrhea.

To ensure a smooth farrowing process and vital piglets at birth, successful weaning already starts at the prenatal stage with an optimal sow feeding that also ensures the proper production of colostrum. As it contains specific prebiotic compounds and other bioactive substances, colostrum is essential for maturing and modulating the intestinal tract.

The first hours after birth are the most critical for colostrum intake. This is due to a process called ‘gut closure’. During the first 24 hours of life, the piglet’s intestine is still permeable to large molecule like immunoglobulins. However, this permeability decreases rapidly. The intervention of determinate management strategies, such as split suckling, can support the smaller piglets’ intake of colostrum. Moreover, colostrum plays an essential role in the gut closure process, because it contains growth factors that promote the maturation of the piglets’ GIT, whereby they improve their ability to absorb nutrients and form a protective barrier against pathogens.

In addition to good colostrum management, training the piglet to eat solid feed is an excellent way to prepare it for weaning. Middelkoop et al. (2019) have indicated that playfully transitioning to solid feed will ‘train the brain’. In other words, compel piglets to face new situations in an early phase to reduce change-induced stress later in life. The authors did not see higher feed intake before weaning – but, after weaning, the piglets ate more and, in particular, they started to consume solid feed sooner, which is key to maintaining the GIT’s functionality.

An early creep feed, such as Babito®, has been specially designed to train piglets to eat and to stimulate exploratory behavior. Babito® sticks to the piglet’s nose and contains specific corn flakes, helping piglets discover the feed in a playful manner. Moreover, thanks to its unique composition, this feed also helps develop the gut structure and stimulates enzyme secretion to digest plant-based raw materials. In this way, it eases the transition to a weaning diet and reduces concomitant stress.

Moreover, Babito® is enriched with START+ , a concept based on specific components that mimic the prebiotic oligosaccharides present in the colostrum of sows. Several trials have demonstrated the effectiveness of START+ on the gut microbiome, the gut structure, and the gut barrier function (Figure 1).

The weaning process not only entails a nutritional transition but an environmental one as well. Piglets are separated from the sow and move to a new environment that has different installations, temperature and air quality. These factors also contribute to increasing the piglets’ stress level, which reduces their level of immunity and makes them more vulnerable to diseases. So, in this stage too, reducing stress factors around weaning is key to maintaining the functionality of the GIT, the commensal microbiome, and a low epithelial permeability.

This again demands a multi-factorial approach, focused on management and nutrition around weaning. The Aim For Zero Concept has been developed specifically for this purpose. It is based on a diet formulated to meet the piglets’ nutritional needs and to avoid digestive disorders during the post-weaning period. Moreover, to preserve gut integrity, certain functional feed ingredients are added specifically to:

In this way, the Concept is not only a valid alternative to zinc oxide, but it also enables the reduction of the use of antibiotics. Figure 2 shows that the application of the Aim for Zero Concept has proven to be very beneficial for gut integrity (Figure 2).

The weaning period is a complex phase in the life cycle of piglets, during which factors such as stress, management, environment and disease play a crucial role. To promote a smoother transition from milk to solid feed, the adoption of a specific pre- and post-weaning nutritional approach is crucial. Both Babito® – a creep feed specifically designed to stimulate early feed intake – and the Aim For Zero Concept – a post-weaning concept with functional feed ingredients to ensure the integrity of the GIT – contribute to maintaining healthy and productive piglets.