Biology subjects

Ewaoluwagbemiga, E. O.

Publications and source records attributed to Ewaoluwagbemiga, E. O..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Protein efficiency and pig welfare: no trade-offs for mitigating nitrogen pollution

Pig manure contributes significantly to environmental pollution through nitrogen compounds. Reducing protein in feed can help, but it may lead to damaging behaviors if pigs nutritional needs are not met. Breeding pigs for higher protein efficiency (PE) is a long-term solution to reduce nitrogen pollution, but concerns about pig welfare remain. We studied 95 pigs involved in a project on the genetic basis of PE on a 20% protein restricted diet to investigate the phenotypic connection between PE and welfare. These pigs represented natural PE variations in the population. At around 100 days, before their PE was known, we observed their behaviors. Only three pigs engaged in tail biting and manipulation of vulnerable regions, but this was not associated with PE. There was no clear link between PE and manipulating pen mates less vulnerable regions. Such behaviors are normal but can cause stress and injury if carried out excessively due to boredom or stress. Overall, pigs with higher PE showed no major behavioral abnormalities in this study. Considering the lack of genetic knowledge, the risk of increased harmful behaviors when selecting for higher PE appears low when inferred from this purely phenotypic association.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2022

Genetic analysis of protein efficiency and its association with performance and meat quality traits under a protein-restricted diet

BackgroundAn essential component in the development of a sustainable pig production is the reduction of nitrogen excretion in fattening pigs. Pig feeds typically contain high levels of dietary crude protein, and due to incomplete conversion to muscle tissue, excess nitrogen is excreted, resulting in environmental problems such as nitrate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, improving protein efficiency (PE), i.e., the proportion of dietary protein that remains in the carcass, is desirable. This study aimed to estimate the heritability (h2) of PE and its genetic correlations with phosphorus efficiency, three performance, seven meat quality and two carcass quality traits when pigs were fed a 20% protein-restricted diet, using a total of 1,071 Swiss Large White pigs. To determine PE, the intake of feed with known nutrient content was accurately recorded for each pig and the nitrogen and phosphorus content of the carcass was determined using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. ResultsWe found an average PE of 0.39 {+/-} 0.04 and a heritability of 0.60 {+/-} 0.08. PE showed a high genetic correlation with phosphorus efficiency (0.68 {+/-} 0.08), moderate genetic correlations with feed conversion ratio (-0.53 {+/-} 0.13) and average daily feed intake (-0.42 {+/-} 0.13), and very little to no genetic correlation with average daily gain (-0.06 {+/-} 0.16). While PE has favourable genetic correlations with the performance traits and some meat quality traits, there is a potentially unfavourable relationship of PE with meat colour (redness [rg = -0.26 {+/-} 0.17]; yellowness [rg = -0.30 {+/-} 0.18]) and intra-muscular fat (IMF; rg = -0.39 {+/-} 0.15). Feed conversion ratio (FCR) also showed unfavourable genetic correlations with meat lightness, redness yellowness, IMF and cooking loss. ConclusionsPE is heritable and can be considered in breeding to reduce the environmental impact of pig production. We found no strong negative influence on meat quality traits (except for meat color and IMF), and there is the potential for indirectly selecting for improved phosphorus efficiency. Selecting nutrient efficiencies might be a more suitable strategy to reduce nitrogen pollution from manure than focusing on FCR because the latter also shows genetic antagonism with some meat quality traits in our population.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2020

Short communication: Applicability of feeding behaviour traits as high-throughput phenotyping methods for identifying protein-efficient pigs

The improvement of efficiency traits, such as protein efficiency (PE), digestible energy efficiency (EnE) and lipid gain (LipG), are relevant given their associations with environmental pollution, cost of productions, and the quality of meat. However, these traits are difficult traits to measure and usually require slaughtering of pigs. Efficiency traits are complex, and several factors, such as genetic predisposition, feed composition, but also individual feeding behaviour may contribute to efficiency. The objective of this study was therefore to evaluate the potential of using feeding behaviour traits to predict efficiency traits under dietary protein restriction. A total of 587 Swiss Large White pigs, consisting of 312 females and 275 castrated males, had ad libitum access to feed and water, and were fed a protein-reduced diet (80% of recommended digestible protein and essential amino acids) from 22.5 {+/-} 1.6 to 106.6 {+/-} 4.6 kg BW. Individual feed intake was monitored and carcass composition (lean and fat mass) at slaughter was determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). The PE and EnE were calculated as the ratio of protein or energy in the carcass (estimated by DXA) to the total protein or energy consumed. Feeding behaviour traits monitored were daily feed intake (DFI; g/day), feed intake per meal (FIM; g/meal), number of daily meals (NDM; meals/day), duration of meal (DUM; min/meal), feeding rate (FR; g/min), and feeder occupation (FO; min/day). A partial least square (PLS) regression was used to predict PE, EnE and LipG from feeding behaviour traits, while including farrowing series (for PE only), age at slaughter and body weight at slaughter. Accuracy of PLS regression was assessed based on RMSE and R2 for calibration and validation sets, and on concordance correlation coefficient (CCC), which were estimated over 100 replicates of calibration and validation sets. Models with a number of latent variables of 5, 2 and 3 were identified as optimal for PE, EnE, and LipG, which explained 34.64%, 55.42% and 82.68% of the total variation in PE, EnE, and LipG, respectively. Significant CCC were found between predicted and observed values for PE (0.50), EnE (0.70), and LipG (0.90). In conclusion, individual feeding behaviour traits can better predict EnE and LipG than for PE under dietary protein restriction when fed ad libitum. ImplicationsThis study suggests that five feeding behaviour traits, which are automatically recorded via feeder stations in large numbers with little effort, together with body weight and age, may be used to predict protein efficiency, energy efficiency and lipid gain in Swiss Large White pigs receiving a protein reduced diet with considerable accuracy. This will allow for easy collection of large amounts of data on these traits for precision feeding and genetic selection strategies, especially when additional traits are added in the future to further improve accuracy.

physiology↗