CAN PIGLET WELFARE BE IMPROVED WITH PRINT-AROME®?

Society increasingly demands the agri-food sector to take animal welfare into account in addition to productive efficiency. Norel is committed to this goal and has developed a differential strategy for the past few years: the imprinting effect.

It is a type of rapid learning by which a newborn animal adopts a behavior of recognition and attraction towards a stimulus, olfactory in this case, which will be ‘imprinted’ on the subject in question. It is sufficient to add Print-Arome® to the sow’s feed during the last week of gestation and throughout lactation. This way, the piglets will be in contact with Print-Arome®’s volatile compounds through the amniotic fluid and milk, depending on the stage. It is then added to the piglet’s post weaning feeds so that they recognize the aroma of the product. Two objectives are sought: the reduction of stress by associating the aroma of Print-Arome® with their mother and an increase in post-weaning intake, thus achieving a much less traumatic transition.

The most recent trial that Norel has published on Print-Arome® allowed us to obtain some information on the impact of imprinting on animal welfare. In this case we focused on the haptoglobin levels in blood one day after weaning. Acute phase proteins (APP), such as haptoglobin, are part of the acute phase systemic response and are components of the innate immune system. Their synthesis is induced by various cytokines during the inflammation process. That is why APP levels in the blood increase when an animal is subject to infection, inflammation, trauma or stress. For this test, a 2×3 factorial design was used, where two diets were used for the sows (control, Print-Arome®) and 3 diets for piglets (control, colistin and Print-Arome®). Data on performance and diarrhea incidence were obtained during the first two weeks after weaning, as well as the level of haptoglobin in blood on day 1 after weaning. The main findings were found in the health parameters, where it was observed that conditioning with Print-Arome® significantly reduced the incidence of diarrhea. On the other hand, a trend of lower haptoglobin levels related to an interaction between both the sow and piglet diets was observed in the group of imprinted piglets. These findings suggest that the general health status of the imprinted animals could be better, as reflected by the lower incidence of diarrhea.

In short, the results obtained in this trial suggest that stress levels of recently weaned piglets could be alleviated through imprinting, thus facilitating the transition from liquid to solid diets and promoting early feed consumption.