Minnesota's Swine & U

Sarah Schieck Boelke:
Hello, and welcome to Minnesota's Swine and U podcast series. This is a University of Minnesota Extension Swine Program. Today's podcast is a research update on the topic of formaldehyde-based feed sanitizers in sow feed.

My name is Sarah Schieck Boelke, your host. I'm a Swine Extension Educator with the University of Minnesota. Joining me today is Sara Williams, who recently finished her Master of Science in the Department of Animal Science.

So, welcome, Sarah. So, to get us started today, Sarah, will you tell us a little bit about yourself, including who you worked with on this project, as maybe not everybody knows, but our

Graduate students, whether they are Master’s or Ph.d students, usually either have an advisor or two that they work with. So, if you could tell us about that.

Sara Williams:
Yeah, so I was co-advised by Dr. Lee Johnson and Dr. Andreas Gomez, and actually, as of a few nights ago, I just finished my Master's in Animal Science with a focus in sow nutrition.

Sarah Schieck Boelke:
Congratulations on recently finishing your master's. I know, that can be quite… quite the accomplishment. In the midst of it, you can not wait, maybe sometimes, until you're done, and then finally there is light at the end of the tunnel, so congratulations on that.

Sara Williams:
Thank you.

Sarah Schieck Boelke:
So, you mentioned that your master revolved around swine nutrition, and specifically working with sows. What research topic will you be sharing with us today?

Sara Williams:
Yeah, so I'll be discussing my research on how formaldehyde-based feed sanitizers affect the reproductive performance of sows, their piglets, as well as the gastrointestinal microbiome of both the sows and piglets.

Sarah Schieck Boelke:
That sounds interesting, and can't wait for you to share what you did and some of your results and the application of that. But before we get too far, I think it's important to recognize the funding sources, because, yeah, research can't happen unless we have a funding source. So, either. So, can you share, how is your research funded?

Sara Williams:
Yeah, so my research was funded in two ways. The first was through the Anatax Corporation, who also provided the product that we used in the study, the formaldehyde-based feed sanitizer. And then I also received a pork board fellowship that helped to support me throughout my studies.

Sarah Schieck Boelke:
Congratulations on receiving that fellowship. So, let's get back talking about specifically the research that you did. Can you give a brief introduction to your research project, and explain why it was a valuable project to do?

Sara Williams: Yeah, I love talking about my research. So my project involved a formaldehyde-based feed sanitizer, and what that is, it's an antimicrobial additive that is mixed into animal feed to help reduce pathogens. So, me and some people at the… or my team at the University of Minnesota and I, we did a study where we fed sows formaldehyde-based feed sanitizers. And then we observed if it affected their reproductive performance and their gastrointestinal microbiome, as well as the performance and microbiome of the sow's piglets. And then we compared those observations to control sows to see if there was a difference.

And this study was really interesting to us, because most of the work done with formaldehyde-based feed sanitizers is done in growing finishing pigs, not sows. But sows face different physiological changes than growing pigs. We were interested to see if those results would be the same in sows compared to the younger pigs.

So, ultimately, our study aimed to help fill a critical knowledge gap by examining how these formaldehyde-based food sanitizers affected sow performance and gut health.

Sarah Schieck Boelke:
And so, like you mentioned, formaldehyde is, feed-based formaldehyde is starting to be used in swine diets because of any pathogens that are contaminating the feed. It has been shown, like you mentioned, through the growth engine research, that that feed-based formaldehyde will help minimize the risk of those pathogens that are contaminated, is that correct?

Sara Williams:
Yeah, and there's been a lot of work done with it, specifically in poultry and salmonella use, and there has been work with it in swine, but there's sort of… it's gotta catch up a little bit with poultry.

Sarah Schieck Boelke:
Yeah, and like you mentioned, a lot of the research on swine has been in the grow finish side, but sows, yeah, with what they go through, their bodies go through, it's a little bit different. So, thank you for… Expanding this research area.

So now, can you explain, how did you go about, completing this study?

Sara Williams:
So, we completed our study at the University of Minnesota Southern Outreach and Research Center in Waseca, Minnesota.

And in total, we used 107 sows, split evenly across two diets. We had our control diet, which was a commercially relevant corn and soybean meal mix-based diet. And then we also had our treatment diet, which was our control diet with 0.55% feed sanitizer at the expense of corn. And these diets were fed at about day 80 of gestation, throughout lactation.

And the feed sanitizer product we used in this study was called Permanate, which was made and provided by the Anatox Corporation.

And then, after we began the diet, we collected sow performance measurements, like body weight, feed intake, back fat thickness, all that good stuff. And we also tracked piglet performance, so we were looking at their weights at birth and weaning, as well as their mortality and growth.

And we also collected microbiome data, so we did this by collecting fecal samples from sows before and after diets were administered, and also from piglets at weaning.

And then with those fecal samples, we were able to extract DNA and send it for sequencing to see the different types of, like, XA and bacteria that were in those samples. And we also tracked wean estrous intervals between both diets.

Sarah Schieck Boelke:
Sounds like you probably had a lot of data points to analyze, was that correct?

Sara Williams:
Oh, yeah, yeah.

Sarah Schieck Boelke:
Well, you mentioned that you recently finished your master's, so you did make it through all of that data. Is this, can you share, please, what were the results of this study?

Sara Williams:
So, overall, feeds we saw that feed sanitizer helped maintain sow performance, so there were no negative effects on feed intake or reproductive success of the sows when we fed them the treatment diet.

We did see that the sows on the feed sanitizer diet had slightly lower body weights, but this didn't affect their overall performance or piglet performance, which was really good to see.

And we also saw that the feed sanitizer caused very modest changes in the sow gut microbiome, so it shifted some bacterial populations, but overall it maintained the stability of the microbiome, which was good to see.

And we saw that the pigment microbiomes were largely unaffected by the maternal diet. And it was more, the environmental factors that had greater influence. So, like, what type of taxa or different bacteria present in the farrin crate had more of an effect on the piglet microbiome than on what the sow was eating or what diet she was on.

Sarah Schieck Boelke:
So, based off of these results that you just shared, what conclusions can be made from the research?

Sara Williams:
Since, we saw no negative effects on production.It means that these treatment diets are likely safe for gestating or lactating sows during production.

So that means that producers would be able to, in theory, feed the feed sanitizer to the sows without worrying about disrupting the flow of piglets or any reproductive cycles.

And we also saw that feed sanitizer use doesn't dramatically alter gut microbial ecology, though with the very subtle changes, the feed sanitizer could be implemented without

Disrupting the gastrointestinal microbiome too much of these sows.

Sarah Schieck Boelke:
What application could this have for the industry?

Sara Williams:
So, some important takeaways from these studies is that or from our study, is that our results provide producers confidence that feed sanitizers won't harm sow productivity, because if sow productivity is harmed, then that can have negative consequences with, sort of, the flow of piglets and output from a farm.

So, and that a product could also potentially improve feed safety, so producers could feed feed sanitizers to sows without harming productivity and also potentially improving feed safety.

And this is also some of the first research that's specifically done in breeding sows, so that's really interesting to see, because most of the research has been in younger pigs, but this time we're looking at how it affects the sow.
Sarah Schieck Boelke:
Well good. Sounds like it was very valuable for the industry, because like you mentioned, a lot of research with the food-based formaldehyde has been done in growth age, but not a lot in sow diets.

We've come to the conclusion here of our discussion. Do you have any closing remarks, or maybe there's something I forgot to ask you that you would like to share?

Sara Williams:
No, you ask great questions. I would also like to thank the Anatakis Corporation for helping us fund this research. That helps address the knowledge gap in the feed sanitizer industry, and I'd also like to do another shout-out and thank you to the National Pork Board for awarding me the fellowship to help support me as I conducted this research.

Sarah Schieck Boelke:
And I want to thank you, Sarah, for sharing your research on formaldehyde-based feed sanitizers in sow feed.

And thank you to everyone listening to the University of Minnesota Swine and You podcast. This has been Sarah Schieck Boelke, Swine Extension Educator, along with Sara Williams, who recently finished her Master of Science degree in the Department of Animal Science.

To further connect with the University of Minnesota Swine Extension, please visit the swine-specific webpages on the University of Minnesota Extension's website at www.extension.umn.edu/swine. And on those pages, you will find connections to our blog, as well as other resources. To learn about research being done by our swine faculty in veterinary medicine. Please visit their Swine in Minnesota blog at www.umnswinenews.com.