M2 - The effects of partially replacing animal proteins with full fat black soldier fly larvae meal in nursery diets on growth performance and indices of immune system robustness of newly weaned pigs

Michelina Crosbie B.Sc.; Cuilan Zhu M.Sc.; Niel Karrow Ph.D; Lee-Anne Huber Ph.D.

• In-feed antibiotics were used as growth promoters in the poultry and swine industries. [1]

• December 1st 2018: Canada banned the use of in-feed antibiotics as growth promoters to reduce the incidence of antibiotic resistance. [1],[2]

• Newly weaned pigs experience high incidences of gastroinestinaldisturbance and gut damage due to post-weaning stress and susceptibility to enteric bacterial infections (e.g. Escherichia coli). [3]

• Medium chain fatty acids (MCFA) in black soldier fly larvae meal (BSFLM) may provide anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory properties in the small intestine. [4]

• Chitin in BSFLM acts as a prebiotic to support a balanced and diverse population of beneficial gut microbes. [5]

• Growth performance and immune system robustness in newly weaned pigs is tightly related to gut health. [6]

Background

Animals:• 144 newly weaned pigs (6.73±0.39 kg initial BW; 21 doa)

placed in 24 pens (n = 6).• Individual pig BW and per pen feed disappearance measured

weekly.

Immune System Robustness:• Day 9 and 21 post-weaning: 2 pigs per pen (1 male/1 female)

vaccinated with 1 mL of 0.5mg/mL ovalbumin (OVA).• Day 38 post-weaning: vaccinated pigs underwent a delayed

hypersensitivity response test with skin thickness measured at 0, 6, 24, and 48hr post-intradermal injection with OVA to evaluate humoral immune response.

• Total plasma IgG for OVA determined using ELISA for blood samples collected on days 21 and 38 post-weaning.

Statistical Analysis: • Data were analyzed using the GLIMMIX procedure of SAS

with pen as experimental unit, diet as fixed effect, and block as random effect; initial BW was used as a covariate.

Hypothesis and Objective

We hypothesize that due to the functional properties of BSFLM, its addition to nursery diets will support indices of

newly weaned piglet health not different than diets also containing animal proteins and in-feed antibiotics.

Our objective was to evaluate BSFLM as a replacement for animal proteins in nursery pig diets and determine its influence

on growth performance and immune system robustness.

Materials and Methods

CON-

• Complex nursery diet.

• 30, 15, and 2% animal proteins in phases I, II, and III.

CON+

• CON- diet.• With

antibiotic Aureomycin added at 220mg/kg complete feed.

LowFF

• CON- diet.• 25% animal

proteins replaced with BSFLM.

HighFF

• CON- diet.• 50% animal

proteins replaced with BSFLM.

Experimental Diets: Fed over 3 phases for 7, 14, and 21 days, respectively.

Results

Table 1. Effect of BSFLM1 inclusion in complex nursery diets on growth performance of pigs after weaning.

Dietary treatmentItem CON- CON+ LowFF HighFF SEM P-value

No. 6 6 5 6BW, kg

Day 0 6.68 6.46 7.30 6.50 0.23 0.094

Day 7 7.49a,b 7.53a,b 7.69a 7.01b 0.17 0.018

Day 21 13.56 13.28 13.69 12.94 0.39 0.345

Day 42 27.34 27.88 27.93 27.30 0.66 0.754

ADG, gPhase I 100 78 96 50 24 0.154

Phase II 431 400 412 442 21 0.437

Phase III 652 685 696 678 25 0.600

Overall 493 493 514 483 13 0.442

ADFI, gPhase I 164 167 164 138 14 0.384

Phase II 543a 467b 516a,b 447b 20 0.003

Phase III 1093 1123 1162 1077 36 0.355

Overall 737 743 780 712 23 0.238

G:FPhase I 0.62 0.47 0.57 0.31 0.10 0.103

Phase II 0.79b 0.86a 0.85a 0.90a 0.04 0.018

Phase III 0.59 0.61 0.60 0.63 0.01 0.156

Overall 0.66 0.67 0.66 0.68 0.01 0.434

1 Full fat black soldier fly larvae meal (BSFLM) obtained from Oreka Solutions (Markham, ON, Canada).

Growth performance overall:

• Differences in G:F ratio in Phase II due to differences in ADFI in Phase II as there were no corresponding differences in ADG in Phase II.

• There were no differences in overall ADG, ADFI, or G:F ratio across all diets. Despite differences in BW for pigs at day 7, BW was not different by day 42.

M2 - The effects of partially replacing animal proteins with full fat black soldier fly larvae meal in nursery diets on growth performance and indices of immune system robustness of newly weaned pigs

Michelina Crosbie B.Sc.; Cuilan Zhu M.Sc.; Niel Karrow Ph.D; Lee-Anne Huber Ph.D.

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Figure 1. Effect of BSFLM inclusion in complex nursery diets on total anti- anti-OVA IgG response in pigs after weaning.

Immune system robustness overall:• Significant main effects of time for total IgG and skinfold thickness

indicate that vaccination to OVA was successful in eliciting an immune response (P <0.001).

• Pigs fed the CON+, LowFF, and HighFF diets had a more robust immune response to OVA at 6hr than those fed the CON- diet (P = 0.078, P <0.05, and P <0.05, respectively; Figure 2).

Results

References

Conclusion and Industry Implications.

Both inclusion levels of BSFLM supported growth performance and indices of immune function not different from complex nursery diets with an antibiotic growth promotor and animal proteins.

Therefore, BSFLM may be a viable alternative to in-feed antibiotic growth promoters and animal proteins in nursery pig diets.However, BSFLM is still cost-prohibitive compared to other

commonly fed animal proteins (whey, fish meal, blood meal) at this time.

Acknowledgements

[1] Rushton, J., J. Pinto Ferreira, K. D. Stärk. 2014. Antimicrobial resistance: the use of antimicrobials in the livestock sector. OECD Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Papers. No. 68. OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5jxvl3dwk3f0-en[2] Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Responsible use of Medically Important Antimicrobials in Animals. Canada.ca. 2018 Jun 18 [accessed 2019 Jan 29]. [3] Heo, J. M., F. O. Opapeju, J. R. Pluske, et al. 2012. Gastrointestinal health and function in weaned pigs: a review of feeding strategies to control post-weaning diarrhoea without using in-feed antimicrobial compounds. J. Anim. Physiol. Anim. Nutr. 97:207-237. doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0396.2012.01284.x[4] Devi, S. M. and I. Kim. 2014. Effect of medium chain fatty acids (MCFA) and probiotic (Enterococcus faecium) supplementation on the growth performance, digestibility and blood profiles in weanling pigs. Vet. Med.-Czech. 59:527–535. doi:10.17221/7817-vetmed [5] Borrelli, L., L. Coretti, L. Dipineto, et al. 2017. Insect-based diet, a promising nutritional source, modulates gut microbiota composition and SCFAs production in laying hens. Scientific Reports. 1. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-16560-6[6] Sun, Y., and S. W. Kim. 2017. Intestinal challenge with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in pigs, and nutritional intervention to prevent postweaning diarrhea. Anim. Nutr. 3:322–330. doi:10.1016/j.aninu.2017.10.001

Funding provided by the Ontario Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Oreka Solutions kindly donated the full fat BSFLM. We acknowledge technical support from undergraduate and graduate student volunteers for their help during the animal studies.

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Figure 2. Effect of BSFLM inclusion in complex nursery diets on the dermal hypersensitivity response to OVA. a,b Values with different letters differed (P < 0.05). x,y Values with different letters tended to differ (P < 0.10).

M2 - The effects of partially replacing animal proteins with full fat black soldier fly larvae meal in nursery diets on growth performance and indices of immune system robustness of newly weaned pigs

Michelina Crosbie B.Sc.; Cuilan Zhu M.Sc.; Niel Karrow Ph.D; Lee-Anne Huber Ph.D.