Improves profitability by Reducing Variability

Modern pig groups can be very large. Most often they arrive together and are raised together in the same house and marketed together as well. However, the multitudes of factors affecting growth sex, health, genetics, pig density, etc. can lead to heterogeneity by the end of the period. Uniformity is often a good performance indicator and driver of profitability. In the US for instance, both light and heavy pigs are often discounted by packing plants that incent the producer for homogenous carcasses that will be consistent with their customers’ expectations for branded products. Because of these discounts decreasing variability leads to greater profitability. Furthermore, a reduction of invariability (specifically fewer lighter pigs) can lead to faster barn turns and more efficient use of facilities. Since 2016 producers in the US have been taking advantage of the effects of xylanases to reduce mortality. However additional benefits beyond just mortality have been elucidated by researchers at Adisseo. Adisseo’s Rovabio® Advance is a multi-carbohydrases produced by their patented strain of Talaromyces versatilis. Adisseo has quantified activity of at least 19 different enzymes in Rovabio® Advance, including xylanase, β-glucanase and an impressive array of debranching enzymes.

In 2 separate studies we fed Rovabio® Advance to over 1200 growing pigs. The results are shown in Table 1. In both studies feeding Rovabio® Advance reduced mortality and morbidity and improved pig profitability. When researchers examined the results of study 1, they found evidence of more uniform performance of pigs. This is evidenced by a trend for lower standard deviation (SD) of carcass weight within pens. This also resulted in a trend towards higher pig price. This occurs because in the U.S. both light and heavy pigs are discounted in terms of price/lb. The histogram of pig carcass weight for Study 1 is presented in Figure 1. Notice that there are fewer pigs in many of the weight ranges of light and heavy pigs. In Study 2 the responses are even more pronounced. In this study, SD was reduced by over 2 lb (0,9 kg) and price increased by nearly $2.00 per hundred lb (45 kg) of carcass! The histogram of pig weights (Figure 2) again illustrates the reduced number of light and heavy pigs.

The mechanism for reduction in variability are not well understood. It is likely associated with the same factors that lead to improvements in mortality and morbidity. Recent studies with Rovabio® in gestating sows have uncovered large decreases in markers for inflammation. Rovabio® Advance has also showed to change the genus of bacterial communities when add to corn-soy with/out corn DDGS diets for growing and finishing pigs, which could be another mechanism behind the improvement on uniformity caused by the presence of this multi-carbohydrase.

In summary, studies with large groups of swine in North America have shown not only reduction in mortality and morbidity, but also reduction in variability. These reductions in variability lead to fewer discounts and high price per unit weight. This higher price is a substantial factor in improved profitability by feeding Rovabio® Advance (Table 1).

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