Improvement of feed and nutrient efficiency in pig production, value of precision feeding

Recent studies indicate that feed efficiency is a key factor for both the economic and the environmental sustainability of pig production. The efficiency of energy utilization by sows and fattening pigs depends mainly on their reproductive and growth potential, and on the rate of deposition of body lipids and protein. These factors also affect the efficiency of use of protein, amino acids and minerals, and consequently their excretion. In fact, both the oversupply and the undersupply of nutrient may induce a decrease in the efficiency of nutrient use, which makes it difficult to handle in practice because of the changes in nutrient requirements over time and their variability among animals. In this context, the availability of new technologies for high throughput phenotyping of pigs and their environment, and of innovative feeders that collect information and allow the distribution of a combination of different diets, offers opportunities for a renewed implementation of prediction models of nutrient requirements, in the perspective of improving feed efficiency and reducing feeding costs and environmental impacts. The approach is to better adapt the amount and composition of the feed distributed to a group of animals or to each individual animal, according to the expected performance over the forthcoming period. The ultimate goal is to feed each individual pig, each day with an optimized tailored ration, corresponding to its expected performance. This requires (1) the real-time collection of information on animal performance and housing conditions, (2) the development of a decision support system for the determination of expected performance and nutrient requirements and (3) the mixing and the distribution by an automated feeder of the optimal ration to be fed to a given pig or a given pen. This represents a real change in the paradigm of animal nutrition for the coming years. Recent experimental studies in the literature confirm theinterest of precision feeding, as well for fattening pigs and gestating sows, with potential reductions of feeding cost and nitrogen and phosphorus excretion of up to 10 to 20%. However further technological developments may still be needed before practical implementation