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Compressed Brown Algae as a Potential Environmental Enrichment Material in Growing Pigs.

ABSTRACT: In barren housing conditions, enrichment materials are given to pigs to improve their welfare. Here, we assessed the suitability of an algae-based cylinder as an enrichment material on the behavioral, physiological, health and productivity welfare indicators of pigs. Algae was compared with metal chains and wood logs. The study involved 444 pigs from two successive batches on one single farm. During the suckling period, half of the pigs received algae and the control pigs received no material. After weaning and until the end of fattening, algae, wood or chains were equally distributed among the pigs. Consumption of algae cylinders was different between pens and between batches. After weaning and during the fattening period, although the results differed between batches, no significant difference was observed in the object manipulations. Salivary cortisol, used as biomarker to measure the stress levels after pig transfers, were similar between the treatments. Enrichment material made from algae had no negative effect on pig health and no effect on performance and body condition. Regarding their characteristics and according to Commission Recommendation (EU) 2016/336 classification, algae cylinders can be categorized as suboptimal enrichment materials, although the present results suggest that it does not significantly improve pig welfare compared to a metal chain, which is categorized as a material of marginal interest.

SUBMITTER: Pol F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7912665 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Compressed Brown Algae as a Potential Environmental Enrichment Material in Growing Pigs.

Pol Françoise F Huneau-Salaün Adeline A Gallien Sarah S Ramonet Yannick Y Rose Nicolas N

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI 20210127 2

In barren housing conditions, enrichment materials are given to pigs to improve their welfare. Here, we assessed the suitability of an algae-based cylinder as an enrichment material on the behavioral, physiological, health and productivity welfare indicators of pigs. Algae was compared with metal chains and wood logs. The study involved 444 pigs from two successive batches on one single farm. During the suckling period, half of the pigs received algae and the control pigs received no material. A ...[more]

PMID: 33513897

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Project description:Enriched environments are known to beneficially affect the behavior of pigs, as compared with barren pens. The influence of enrichment may, however, depend on pigs' early life housing experiences. The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term effects of early and later life environmental enrichment on behavior and growth in pigs with different coping styles. Pigs were housed in either barren pens or in larger pens enriched with rooting substrates from birth, and half of them experienced a housing switch, i.e., a loss or gain of enrichment, at 7 weeks of age, creating four treatment groups. Home pen behavior and body weight were recorded until 19 weeks of age. Pigs were classified as reactive or proactive based on a backtest at 2 weeks of age. Enrichment increased time spent exploring, chewing, and play and decreased oral manipulation of penmates and pen-directed exploring and chewing. Behavior of pigs that switched from barren to enriched pens or vice versa reflected not only their actual environment, but also their early life housing. As early and later life enrichment affected most behaviors in opposite directions, effects of enrichment, or lack thereof, after the switch were more pronounced in pigs that had experienced a different early life condition. For instance, pigs experiencing an upgrade from barren to enriched pens seemed to "catch-up" by showing more exploration and play. Conversely, pigs exposed to a downgrade displayed more oral manipulation of penmates than ones kept barren throughout, which particularly held for pigs with a reactive coping style. Effects of early life and current housing on several other behaviors depended on coping style too. Pigs housed in enriched conditions appeared better able to cope with weaning than barren housed pigs, as they gained more weight and had higher feed intake post-weaning. Barren housed pigs had a lower body weight than enriched pigs just before the switch, after which growth was mainly determined by actual housing, with enriched kept pigs having a higher feed intake and body weight. Thus, not only current housing conditions, but also a (mis)match with the early life environment may affect behavior and growth of pigs.

Project description:BackgroundMarine bacteria have recently attracted increasing attention to be harnessed for the production of valuable enzymes, vitamins, and bioactive compounds. Bacteria associated with the surfaces of marine macroalgae, called epibionts, are particularly interesting from ecological and biotechnological points of view, as they often exhibit antimicrobial activities to compete with pathogenic bacteria for nutrients and spaces. In search for biotechnologically potential genes from marine bacteria, we sequenced and analysed the genome of the epibiont HI03-3b, a polysaccharide-degrading bacterium associated with the surface of the Indonesian brown algae Hydroclathrus sp.ResultsThe algal epibiont HI03-3b has a genome of approximately 4,860,704 bp in size with 42.02 mol% G + C content, consisting of 5655 open reading frames (ORFs), 4409 genes coding for proteins (CDSs), 94 genes for tRNAs, and 32 genes for rRNAs. The genome sequence of HI03-3b was most closely related to that of Cytobacillus firmus NCTC10335 with the average amino acid identity (AAI) of 95.0 %, average nucleotide identity (ANI) of 94.1 %, and a recommended DNA-DNA hybridization (DDH) of 57.60 %. These scores are lower than the most frequently used standard for species demarcation (95% ANI cutoff) and the new species threshold (DDH > 70.0% for the same bacterial species). Some differences in genome features and gene composition were observed between HI03-3b and NCTC10335, such as genes encoding carbohydrate active enzymes. These suggest that HI03-3b is unique and likely a novel species within Cytobacillus genus, and we therefore proposed its name as Cytobacillus wakatobiense HI03-3b. Genome sequence analyses indicated the presence of genes involved not only in polysaccharide and protein degradation but also in vitamin and secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Some of them encode enzymes and compounds with biotechnological interest, such as protease, chitinase, subtilisin, pullulanase, and bacillolysin, which are often associated with antimicrobial or antibiofilm activities. This antimicrobial potential is supported by our finding that the extracellular protein fraction of this epibiont inhibited the growth of the bacterial pathogen Staphylococcus aureus.ConclusionThe epibiont Cytobacillus HI03-3b harbours genes for polysaccharide and protein degradation as well as for natural product biosynthesis, suggesting its potential ecological roles in outcompeting other bacteria during biofilm formation as well as in protecting its algal host from predation. Due to the presence of genes for vitamin biosynthesis, it might also provide the algal host with vitamins for growth and development. Some of these metabolic genes are biotechnologically important, as they could become a platform for bioengineering to generate various seaweed-derived substances sustainably, such as antibiofilm agents and vitamins, which are beneficial for human health.

Dataset Information

Compressed Brown Algae as a Potential Environmental Enrichment Material in Growing Pigs.

Publications

Compressed Brown Algae as a Potential Environmental Enrichment Material in Growing Pigs.

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