Dr Solignac wins Janssen Animal Health pig management award

20-07-2010 | Home | News

The 4th Pig Management Award by Janssen Animal Health has been awarded to Dr Thierry Solignac from France. The winner was announced during the award ceremony (19 July) during the IPVS, in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Emmy Koeleman reports from IPVS, Vancouver

Dr Solignac won the award with his paper: The over muscled sow syndrome: a new emerging syndrome in a hyper-prolific sow herd, field observations on farrowing duration. Dr Solignac is both a veterinarian and nutritionist, working at Coopagri in Brittany, France. He and his co-workers developed a feeding programme that reduces the muscularity in sows at farrowing. “Over muscular sows are becoming a real problem, the high lean meat percentage is due to genetics and it comes with additional problems, for both the animal and farmer” explains Solignac.

“We cannot change the genetics, that is a fact, but we can adjust the sow’s lean fat percentage (and thus muscularity) by adjusting the diet. We have developed a feeding scheme, which is primarily focused on lowering the lysine content during certain periods of pre-mating and gestation” says Solignac. Lysine is the main nutrient that has an impact on lean tissue. The gilts are given a low lysine diet before mating, expect for the last 15 days before mating till 21 days after mating, then the animals receive a high lysine diets. The last 21 days before farrowing, the sows again receive a high lysine diet and the time in the middle the lysine content is again reduced. “By reducing the lysine content by 20% in the diet, during certain periods, we can reduce the lean fat content by 10% approximately, says Solignac.

This 10% reduction – and thus less muscular sows during farrowing and lactation – has many advantages. The farrowing goes smoother, the lactation is better and the sows are less aggressive.

Solignac is honored with the Pig Management Award. “I am very happy with this award, as this topic is very important and will become a greater problem in the near future. I hope this award will increase the awareness of this topic among other veterinarians and nutritionists”, Solignac commented.

The oral paper can be read by clicking here.

Related website:
• Janssen Animal Health