developing tools to maximise feed use e ciency in monogastrics - … · 2016-05-03 · |6 7 |...
TRANSCRIPT
Developing tools to maximise feed use efficiency in monogastrics
ECO-FCE stakeholder workshop with the 66th Annual EAAP meeting
Sunday August 30th
The Assembly Hall
Warsaw University of Life Sciences
Poland
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AGENDA
14:40 - 14:50 Why do we need ECO-FCE?
Dr Niamh O´Connell, Queen´s University Belfast
14:50 - 15:15 Feed innovation to improve efficiency and reduce pollution.Dr David Torrallardona, IRTA, Spain
15:15 - 15:40 How the gut fosters feed efficiency?Dr Barbara Metzler-Zebeli, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria
15:40 - 16:05 What more can genetics offer us to improve feed efficiency?
Understanding the genetic architecture
of feed efficiency traits Dr Henry Reyer, Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology, Germany
Selecting for improved feed efficiencyDr Mahmoud Shirali, Aarhus University, Denmark
16:05 - 16:30 Coffee break
16:30 - 17:00 The ECO-FCE toolbox and introduction to world café.Dr Elizabeth Magowan, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Northern Ireland
17:00 - 18:00 World Café
(key themes to be presented and discussed)
18:00 - 18:30 Brief Presentation and Discussion by each “table manager”.
18:30 - open Wine Reception and networking.
Sunday August 30th 2015The Assembly Hall | Warsaw University of Life Sciences | Poland
Efficient & ecologically-friendly pig and poultry production
A whole-systems approach to optimising feed efficiency and reducing the ecological footprint of monogastrics
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INTRODUCTION
“Sustainable intensification” is a widely-used term in agricultural circles at the moment. It is clear that intensive production systems will play a key role in fee-
ding a growing global population, but they must also be sustainable. This means
being environmentally-friendly and allowing a reasonable return on investment
for producers. Rising costs of energy and feed, combined with low product prices,
make this latter element a continual challenge for producers. The pig and broiler
chicken industries are key contributors to the European economy, and one of
the main ways in which sustainability can be achieved is through improving feed
conversion efficiency (FCE).
This is the focus of the 4-year EU Framework 7 project ECO-FCE (www.eco-fce.eu), which started in 2013. Using state-of-the-art “omics” technologies integrated with novel systems biology research, this project will gain a greater understan-
ding of factors underpinning variation in FCE between animals. It will also iden-
tify management and nutritional routes through which FCE can be improved, and nutrient and greenhouse gas emissions reduced. At the same time, the impact of
FCE on product quality and on animal health and welfare is also being monitored. The project will culminate in the production of industry-ready models and tools to assist stakeholders in understanding, measuring and managing the impact
of management decisions on FCE and environmental impact.
The ECO-FCE consortium (here visiting laboratory facilities at Vetmeduni, Vienna)
comprises a broad spectrum of indu-
stry representatives and scientists from
across Europe and the US. There are 18
partner organisations in our ECO-FCE team with specialist expertise in the
areas of monogastric nutrition, genetics,
meta genomics, statistical modelling,
product quality, animal production, and animal health and welfare. Six of these
partners are commercial companies, which means that the team has a strong
focus on developing practical information and tools to meet industry needs.
A key aim of this workshop is to communicate our early research findings to stakeholders from industry, government and academia. However, we also want
to hear from you! We would like your feedback on how best our future analysis
and research can be tailored to suit your needs. We have also generated a lot of
unique data in our research work to date which could perhaps also be used for other purposes, and we would like your thoughts on this. For this reason, we are using a combination of formal presentations and a less formal, and more perso-
nal, “world café” today.
We hope you find this workshop both useful and enjoyable!
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PROFILE OF SPEAKERS
Dr Niamh O’Connell is a Reader at the Institute for Global Food Se-
curity (IGFS), Queen’s University Belfast, and is acting as strategic co-ordinator of ECO-FCE. Queens University is one of the top 20 research- driven Universities in the UK, and staff and post-
graduate students in IGFS conduct research in the areas of animal health and welfare, human
and animal nutrition, safety of food and feed in-
gredients, climate change and economics of food
security.
Niamh manages a team of post-doctoral research scientists and post graduate
students at the Institute, working predominantly in the area of farm animal
welfare research. She has conducted research in this area for 18 years, and has
worked with pigs, poultry (laying hens and broiler chickens) and dairy cows. She
has produced many publications in this field, and frequently acts as an invited speaker on animal welfare topics. She has specific expertise in assessing effects of husbandry and housing factors on farm animal welfare, and in collaborating
with industrial partners including farmer levy bodies and commercial companies.
Dr Elizabeth Magowan leads the monogastric research programme at
the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Northern Ireland. Elizabeth completed a PhD in dairy nu-
trition and subsequently joined AFBI as a pig research scientist. Elizabeth has developed the
AFBI pig and poultry research programme in re-cent years whose main aim is to optimise pig and
broiler chicken production performance through
management and nutritional strategies whilst re-
ducing their environmental impact.
Over the past 11 years Elizabeth has gained much experience working in industry/ academic collaborative studies and has presented her work across the UK and
at international conferences as well as publications in journals. A key focus of Elizabeth’s work in AFBI has been the optimisation and understanding of feed use efficiency, hence AFBI’s involvement in ECO FCE. Within ECO FCE Elizabeth takes on the role as deputy co-ordinator and has key responsibility for the progress of
the scientific elements.
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PROFILE OF SPEAKERS
Dr David Torrallardona is Research Director in Monogastric Nutrition
at IRTA, Spain. He obtained his veterinary de-
gree in 1988 from the Autonomous University of
Barcelona. Soon after, he moved to the Rowett Research Institute where he worked under the
supervision of Malcolm F. Fuller to obtain his PhD degree in Animal Nutrition by the University of
Aberdeen in 1994. He joined IRTA research in-
stitute in 1995, where he has gained many ye-
ars of experience on the study of the effects of
enzymes on nutrient digestibility, environmental
pollution aspects related to feeding and efficacy studies of different additives in the feeding of swine. He has also worked on the
evaluation of the effects of different feed ingredients and additives on the gut
health of pigs after weaning.
He has been involved in several national and European funded projects (e.g. Feed for Pig Health). He is also active in contractual research work in collabo-
ration with private companies from the pig feed sector. He is a member of the
editorial boards of the journals “Animal” and “Archives of Animal Nutrition”. He has served as secretary (2001-2006) and vice-president (2007-2011) of the
Pig Production Commission of the European Association for Animal Production
(EAAP), and currently member of the Spanish Scientific Committee of EAAP and the International Steering Committee for the Digestive Physiology of Pigs Sym-
posium (DPP). He is author/co-author for many scientific publications and cont-ributions to scientific meetings.
Dr Barbara Metzler-Zebeli is a senior scientist at the University of Veteri-
nary Medicine Vienna, Austria. She has obtained
a PhD and Habilitation (advanced lectureship and
research degree) in Animal Nutrition and is active
in teaching and supervision of undergraduate
and graduate students of Veterinary Medicine
and related studies.
Her research activities are at the interface of
functional dietary ingredients and gut health in
livestock animals, such as pigs, ruminants and
poultry, with a strong focus on the effect of die-
tary complex carbohydrates and minerals on the gut. Her research group studies
the nutrition-related changes in composition and activity of the gut microbiota,
gut function and host metabolism as well as determines the consequent impacts on host health and performance. Barbara leads several national and international research projects and is a founding member of “Animal-Gut-Health”, an interdis-ciplinary research cluster at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna which
fosters basic and applied research in the field of gut homeostasis and microbio-
me analysis.
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PROFILE OF SPEAKERS
Dr Henry Reyer graduated in biology with main focus on mole-
cular biology and genetics from the University
of Rostock, Germany. During his PhD research
at the Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biolo-
gy (FBN), he focused on the molecular charac-terization of candidate genes involved in stress
responses in pigs by combining holistic and fun-
ctional analyses. Henry has been employed as
a post-doc scientist at FBN in Germany for one year. In this capacity, he is responsible for the
research dealing with the genetic architecture
and the molecular background of traits related
to feed efficiency in monogastrics, as part of the ECO-FCE project.
The FBN in Dummerstorf aims to exploit interdisciplinary synergisms, which arise from disciplinary approaches of its six institutes, to solve complex research tasks
of sustainable and balanced animal breeding. The Institute for Genome Biology of the FBN contributes to the identification of the basic genetic and epigenetic principles of trait expression and inheritance addressing genetic improvement
of animal health and welfare, adaptability and robustness, as well as resource
efficiency and product quality.
Dr. Mahmoud Shirali is postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Quan- titative Genetics and Genomics (QGG) of Aarhus University, Denmark. He is a member of the ECO-FCE team who received funding from EU 7th frame-
work to investigate the genetics and genomics
of feed efficiency in monogastric farm animals. Mahmoud graduated with MSc. degree in Quan-
titative Genetics and Genome Analysis degree
from Edinburgh University, UK in 2009. Then he
obtained his PhD degree on genetics of feed effi-
ciency in growing pigs in 2013 from Wageningen
University in a multinational project in collabora-
tion with Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), the British Pig Executive (BPEX) and PIC-Genus. Mahmoud‘s interests are modelling feed efficiency, optimisation of breeding programs and further improvement of genetic gain through genomic
selection in monogastric farm animals (Pigs, Chicken and Mink).
The QGG center of Aarhus University is involved with national, European and international projects on feed efficiency in many species which has made it a pioneer centre in improvement of feed efficiency and in general genomics. The QGG center has a very strong basis as industry partner along with being a strong collaborative partner for conducting research.
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SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC TALKS
Feed innovation to improve efficiency and reduce pollution
David Torrallardon, IRTA, Spain
The evaluation of different feeding
strategies to improve feed use ef-
ficiency and reduce the ecological footprint of pig and broiler chicken
production systems will be presen-
ted. These comprise different ways
of offering feed as well as changes
in the composition of the diets, in-
cluding the use of feed additives.
Regarding the way in which feed is offered, improved feeding precision and li-
quid feeding were tested in pigs, whereas nutritional conditioning was tested in broilers. Improved feeding precision in growing-finishing pigs (by using more homogeneous groups of animals and up to 9 feed compositions) was evaluated
vs. conventional phase (2 feed changes) and multiphase feeding (5 feed chan-
ges). Improved feeding precision appeared to be more advantageous during the
finishing phase, particularly in males.
The potential of liquid feeding to improve the efficacy of exogenous enzymes was also investigated in growing-finishing pigs. Exogenous enzymes were tested under dry and liquid feeding regimes, and in the case of liquid feeding, the enzy-
me supplementation was be tested with and without prolonged soaking prior to
administration. Prolonged soaking of the diets supplemented with enzyme was
the most effective combination to improve performance and nutrient utilization.
Nutritional conditioning (i.e. feeding of a nutrient deficient diet early in life to im-
prove the efficiency with which the animal uses it in later stages) was also tested for phosphorous and for methionine in broiler chickens. A tendency for a positive
effect of early P conditioning on weight gain and feed to gain ratio was observed.
Early P conditioning improves bone mineralisation (total tibia ash), although no
effect on AID of P could be detected. Early methionine conditioning tended to
improve feed to gain ratio birds fed a methionine limiting diet later in life.
Regarding the effects of feed composition and the use of feed additives, a large
range of feed ingredients with different exogenous enzyme combinations have
been tested in vitro to identify those with most potential for improving FCE which can be evaluated within in vivo trials. The estimated efficacy of the different exo-
genous enzymes tested in vitro varied depending on the type of feed ingredient
being used as substrate. Substantial differences were also observed between the
two in vitro simulations tested (i.e. for pigs and for poultry, respectively).
This work will provide a better understanding of how to optimise the different
feeding strategies described and on their potential impact on feed efficiency and the overall ecological footprint of pig and poultry production.
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How the gut fosters feed efficiencyBarbara U. Metzler-Zebeli, Vetmeduni, ViennaElizabeth Magowan, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, Northern IrelandPeadar G. Lawlor, Teagasc, Moorepark, Ireland
The gut of pigs and poultry harbors a complex microbiota which is almost exclu-
sively composed of bacteria. Intensive crosstalk of the gut microbiota with the
host and diet exist, thereby modifying gut development and regulation of host
immunity, nutrient digestion, absorption and metabolism. The potential of the
host microbiome to influence host production efficiency should therefore not be underestimated.
In ECO-FCE, we use a whole-systems approach to improve our understanding of the interactions between the gut microbiome and host in pigs and broiler chickens
by investigating the gut bacterial profile, function and structure of pigs and broiler chickens with good and poor feed efficiency (FE) and linking the changes in the gut bacterial profile to the modifications at structural and functional level of the gut. In using this newly gained knowledge, we apply dietary strategies including
direct-fed microbials (e.g. probiotics and competitive exclusion cultures) and
prebiotics to enhance the gut bacterial profile and functionality towards those of good FE animals to ultimately improve feed efficiency.
Production parameters showed that pigs and chickens of good FE ate substan-
tially less feed than their counterparts of poor FE with no effect on growth per-formance. Diverging FE was accompanied by differences in the gut bacterial microbiome, and small intestinal structure and function in pigs and chickens. In
pigs, only two of the 98 bacterial families (Streptococcaceae and Campylobacter-
aceae) and four of the 212 genera (Streptococcus, Campylobacter, Adlercreutzia
and Pseudobutyrivibrio) detected within the faecal microbiota of pigs with good
versus poor feed efficiency differed. However, the role of these bacterial groups may be important; for example, some species of Streptococcus, most notably
Streptococcus suis, are pathogenic to pigs and this genus was less abundant in
the more efficient animals. Age-related changes in the faecal microbiota and the influence of the sow on offspring microbiota were also evident. In chickens, due
to the varying bacterial profiles in caecal, ileal and faecal digesta different key bacterial genera for good and poor FE could be identified for the three gut sites, among those Turicibacter for good FE and Lactobacillus for poor FE. The func-tional potential of the intestinal microbiota of these pigs and chickens is being
investigated further in order to elucidate the role of the intestinal microbiota in
FE. Differences in microbial activity were indicated by elevated caecal concentra-
tions of propionate and butyrate in male chickens of poor FE compared to male chickens of good FE. Both pigs and chickens of good FE showed greater mucosal permeability in the distal jejunum compared to animals of poor FE, with the effect being more pronounced in female chickens of good FE. While female chi-ckens of good FE showed mainly shorter villus height and crypt depth along the small intestine, the main difference in gut structure in pigs were fewer goblet cell
numbers in jejunum and cecum with good FE compared to poor FE. At functional level improved carbohydrate digestion with good versus poor FE was indicated by enhanced disaccharidase activities at the duodenal brush border but only in pigs.
Linking feed efficiency to alterations in the gut bacterial composition and their impact on gut function provides opportunities to “design” dietary strategies and develop dietary supplements that target key bacteria and gut functions to en-
hance feed efficiency while decreasing ecological footprint. Current project work includes investigating the inoculation of pigs and chickens with microbiota from
good FE animals and the feeding of prebiotics as a means of selecting for a microbial profile in the GIT so that good FE is promoted.
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Understanding the genetic architecture of feed efficiency traitsHenry Reyer and Klaus Wimmers, Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), Dummerstorf, Germany
The understanding of the genetic architecture of feed efficiency related traits, either by genome wide association studies (GWAS) or genomic selection (GS)
approaches will provide links between genomic variation and variation in feed
conversion efficiency (FCE) and related growth, carcass and meat quality traits. Furthermore, holistic “omics” techniques can resolve different levels of the geno- type-phenotype axis, i.e. the transcriptome and the metabolome, to identify animal-
individual alterations of molecular routes relevant for the efficient transition of nutrients into animal tissues. Thus, genetic and transcriptional analyses will give
us the opportunity to develop biomarkers to improve efficiency and product qua-
lity traits. The successful application of such biomarkers in animal breeding is
already implemented in breeding schemes for different livestock animal species
(e.g. MC4R, RYR1 and IGF1).
Our research regarding genetic factors that affect FCE in chicken and pigs re-
vealed large differences in the genetic potential of both species. The analyses of
a commercial Cobb broiler line, which was already under selection for FCE and weight gain traits over many generations, revealed only low heritability of FCE related traits, i.e. feed conversion ratio, feed intake and weight gain. Never-
theless, this commercial population provides the opportunity to focus on genes
with low to moderate effects on the traits, as depicted by the identification and evaluation of positional and functional candidate genes AGK and GTF2I. The AGK gene encodes a mitochondrial aclyglycerol kinase which catalyzes the synthesis
of essential phospholipid components and signalling molecules. GTF2I was shown to be involved in the transcriptional regulation of growth factor signalling path-
ways. Consequently, as exemplified by the divergent molecular routes affected by both genes, diverse biological processes are assumed to be regulated in the
background of FCE.
Regarding pigs, the consideration of FCE-related traits as criteria for breeding is under way. Our analyses of a terminal sire line population (Maxgro) revealed a high potential for genetic adaptation regarding FCE and feeding behavioural traits like feeder visits and daily consumption rate. The estimated contribution
of genetic factors to the variance in these traits was between 30-40 percent.
Interesting candidate genes that were located in the putative quantitative trait loci are involved e.g. in water homeostasis, glycolysis, mitochondria assembly,
and beta-oxidation.
Ultimately, genetic and molecular analyses of feed efficiency in livestock species can provide biomarkers that are (1) diagnostic for the contemporary utilization
and partitioning of nutrients, (2) indicative towards the animal’s reactivity to nutritional and management interventions towards improved FCE, and (3) in-
formative regarding the genetic potential of the animal to breed animals with
inheritable beneficial feed conversion properties.
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Selecting for improved feed efficiency Mahmoud Shirali and Just Jensen, Aarhus University, Denmark
Efficiency in utilization of nutrients to produce quality lean meat is of high im- portance in pig breeding due to economic and environmental sustainability. There-
fore, pig breeders enforce a high selection pressure on feed efficiency in their breeding programs. However, due to complexity of traits representing feed effi-
ciency, the best measurement to reflect this trait is a major research challenge. Feed conversion ratio (FCR, feed intake : body weight gain) has been used in breeding programs traditionally, however, FCR is a gross measurement of feed efficiency and selection on this trait may result in inconsistent selection pressure on its component traits. Therefore, residual feed intake (RFI) has been proposed as a better measure of feed efficiency which is expected to be independent of production traits included in breeding programs. In the EU funded project ECO-FCE, we have improved modelling of RFI through using longitudinal feed intake records available from electronic feeders; in addition, we obtained an RFI esti-mate which is genetically independent of production and body composition traits.
This is expected to result in faster genetic gain in feed efficiency compared to using FCR, followed by no unfavourable selection pressure on production and body composition traits.
While breeding based on pedigree information has been successful, to further
increase the rate of genetic gain, whole genome selection has been shown to be
a useful tool. We have shown the effect of combining dense marker and pedigree
information to obtain breeding values for all animals. An increase in accuracy of
estimated genetic merits of animals from one hand, and providing a cost effective
genomic selection implementation strategy on the other hand, would result in
further economic gain for the pig production sector.
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The ECO-FCE toolboxElizabeth Magowan, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, Northern Ireland
ECO-FCE will deliver a vast range of answers and new ideas to advance improve- ments in feed conversion efficiency for pigs and chickens. It also aims to deliver some tangible tools which will help stakeholders adopt changes and promote
understanding. ECO-FCE has taken a mutli-disciplinary approach to understand FCE. The effects of animal potential and nutritional strategies on genetic expres-sion, at various levels e.g. proteome, transciptome and genome are being con-
sidered alongside the effects on gut microbiota and structure as well as animal
performance, meat quality and welfare. As such the solutions and advice that ECO-FCE will deliver will be holistic in nature. ECO-FCE also considers that early life nutrition of animals has a key role in lifetime performance and as such will
provide advice and guidance in this area.
Two key tangible tools which ECO-FCE is currently developing include a unique SNP chip and the ECO-FCE hub. The unique SNP chip is being developed to more accurately identify animals within breeding populations which will improve the
FCE of slaughter generation animals. ECO-FCE is working closely with project partners representing pig and chicken genetic providers. Using over 1000 ani-
mals from each species and their associated individual performance records, ge-
netic analysis has been conducted to identify markers which could be included on
the SNP chip. A unique SNP chip is at an advanced stage of development for pigs.
The ECO-FCE Hub represents a unique tool for use by a wide range of stakehol-ders. The ECO-FCE hub will be an electronic library of information reporting the impact of nutrition and genetics on feed use efficiency and daily gain of pigs and chickens by using over 20,000 data points. This library is at an advanced stage
of development and has been built through the collaboration of all academic
partners in ECO-FCE. Initially a systematic review of literature was conducted to identify all peer review articles discussing feed use efficiency for pigs and broiler chickens. Partners then extracted key points of information from approximately
4000 papers reported between 2008 and 2014. These key points of information
included all materials and methods e.g. space allowance, feeder design, ventila-
tion as well as all details available with regard to the diets offered to animals and
the genetics of the animals used. Results captured included animal weight, daily
gain, intake, feed conversion efficiency and respective statistical data. Where possible the impact on emissions and nutrient excretion (nitrogen and phos-
phorus), gut microbiota and structure and genetic factors such as heritability
were recorded. Two master excel spreadsheets currently exist, each housing
over 11,000 lines of data from these papers i.e. 11,000 “treatments”. Meta ana-
lysis of this information is currently underway but this electronic library will then
evolve into an electronic tool where stakeholders will be able to interrogate the
information for their own individual purposes.
The collation of this “current” knowledge was conducted due to the wealth of in-
formation and advice it could offer when considered in combination. The scale of
this exercise is unique and will allow multiple comparisons between diverse nutri-tional strategies or animal genetics to be made. Current knowledge is a powerful
tool and it is suggested that mechanisms should be discussed to enable this
unique database to be updated as new information emerges. However, if this was possible, a pre requisite would be the standardisation of information in published papers. In this exercise it was alarming to note the inconsistent manner and level
of detail which is reported across peer review papers. If this unique database is to be continued in an efficient manner, perhaps in line with key journals, some guidelines may need to be put in place to ensure peer review papers consistently
include some key aspects of materials and methods used.
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NOTES
This project has received funding from the European Union‘s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No. 311794.
www.eco-fce.eu
Efficient & ecologically-friendly pig and poultry production
A whole-systems approach to optimising feed efficiency and reducing the ecological footprint of monogastrics