Special Issue "Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility and Pork Quality in Swine Production"

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Pigs".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Eugeniusz Ryszard Grela
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Animal Nutrition and Bromatology, Faculty of Animal Sciences and Bioeconomy, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Interests: animal nutrition; pigs feeding; ecological production; carcass traits; meat and fat quality
Prof. Dr. Małgorzata Świątkiewicz
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Research Institute of Animal Production, Department of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science, ul. Krakowska 1, 32-083 Balice, Poland
Interests: pig nutrition; feeds quality; carcass traits; meat and fat quality; nutrigenomics

Special Issue Information

Optimal nutrition, breeding strategies, as well as environmental and slaughter conditions have a major influence on swine production efficiency and meat quality. The high nutrition costs require optimal precision of feeding and feed quality and digestibility. Special attention must be payed to feed additives improving nutrients absorption and reducing both feeding costs and environmental feces’ impact. Prenatal and early-life feeding strategies can promote long-term animal health and digestive tract development, affecting its enzymatic and microbiome states as well as nutrients digestion efficiency and, thus, meat quality. Meat quality is a result of complex interactions between pig genotype, rearing conditions, feeding, age, weight, castration, as well as environmental conditions during rearing and slaughter. In addition, consumer expectations put pressure on innovative production strategies, taking into account animal welfare and environmental safety and intended for high-quality meat products, obtained considering ecological concerns or local native breeds. Genomic and proteomics analyses are promising methods for the evaluation of the effect of nutrition on the expression of chosen genes, metabolic pathways, and transcriptomes, broadening our knowledge about the influence of nutrition on animal phenotype. Noninvasive biomarkers could also be helpful to evaluate animal health and welfare and to early predict final meat quality and production results.

This Special Issue is interested in both reviews and research papers on all aspects related to pig nutrition during all production stages: modulation of gut physiology, integrity, immunity, and microbiota; feed additives regulating intestinal absorption and/or meat quality; strategies to improve meat quality; ecological and native breed production systems. It is also interested in omics analyses of the effects of feeding from any perspective. This includes papers on management strategies during prenatal and early-life feeding having long-term beneficial effects on pig productivity.

Prof. Dr. Eugeniusz Ryszard Grela
Prof. Dr. Małgorzata Świątkiewicz
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • pig production strategies
  • pig feeding
  • nutrients digestibility
  • gut health, meat and fat quality
  • nutrigenomics
  • early life programming
  • ecological production
  • biomarkers of health and productivity.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
Effect of Inulin Source and a Probiotic Supplement in Pig Diets on Carcass Traits, Meat Quality and Fatty Acid Composition in Finishing Pigs
Animals 2021, 11(8), 2438; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11082438 - 19 Aug 2021
Viewed by 472
Abstract
In this experiment, we investigated the effect of the supplementation of probiotic bacteria in the diet with inulin or dried Jerusalem artichoke tubers on the performance, meat quality, and fatty acid composition in the meat and backfat of fatteners. One hundred and forty-four [...] Read more.
In this experiment, we investigated the effect of the supplementation of probiotic bacteria in the diet with inulin or dried Jerusalem artichoke tubers on the performance, meat quality, and fatty acid composition in the meat and backfat of fatteners. One hundred and forty-four crossbred pigs (PIC × Penarlan P76) were divided into six groups and fattened from 30 to 114 kg. The meat proximate composition, pH, color, texture, shear force, water-holding capacity, sensory attributes, and thiobarbituric-acid-reactive substances were measured. Normal post-mortem meat glycolysis was demonstrated and no meat defects were present. The chemical constituents in muscle tissues were similar, except for intramuscular fat (IMF). The addition of the prebiotics resulted in a higher IMF level, whereas a significantly lower content was found after the probiotic supplementation. Meat from both prebiotic groups was lighter, less red, and more yellow and showed a higher hue angle. The addition of both prebiotics significantly improved the antioxidant status of meat (by approximately 16% and 18%) and the water-holding capacity (less free water and higher M/T ratios), but reduced shear force (by 17%, p ≤ 0.05) and hardness (by 39% and 35%, respectively, p ≤ 0.05). The addition of the prebiotics and probiotics had no effect on any of the evaluated sensory attributes. Full article
Article
The Diversity, Composition, and Metabolic Pathways of Archaea in Pigs
Animals 2021, 11(7), 2139; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11072139 - 20 Jul 2021
Viewed by 886
Abstract
Archaea are an essential class of gut microorganisms in humans and animals. Despite the substantial progress in gut microbiome research in the last decade, most studies have focused on bacteria, and little is known about archaea in mammals. In this study, we investigated [...] Read more.
Archaea are an essential class of gut microorganisms in humans and animals. Despite the substantial progress in gut microbiome research in the last decade, most studies have focused on bacteria, and little is known about archaea in mammals. In this study, we investigated the composition, diversity, and functional potential of gut archaeal communities in pigs by re-analyzing a published metagenomic dataset including a total of 276 fecal samples from three countries: China (n = 76), Denmark (n = 100), and France (n = 100). For alpha diversity (Shannon Index) of the archaeal communities, Chinese pigs were less diverse than Danish and French pigs (p < 0.001). Consistently, Chinese pigs also possessed different archaeal community structures from the other two groups based on the Bray–Curtis distance matrix. Methanobrevibacter was the most dominant archaeal genus in Chinese pigs (44.94%) and French pigs (15.41%), while Candidatus methanomethylophilus was the most predominant in Danish pigs (15.71%). At the species level, the relative abundance of Candidatus methanomethylophilus alvus, Natrialbaceae archaeon XQ INN 246, and Methanobrevibacter gottschalkii were greatest in Danish, French, and Chinese pigs with a relative abundance of 14.32, 11.67, and 16.28%, respectively. In terms of metabolic potential, the top three pathways in the archaeal communities included the MetaCyc pathway related to the biosynthesis of L-valine, L-isoleucine, and isobutanol. Interestingly, the pathway related to hydrogen consumption (METHANOGENESIS-PWY) was only observed in archaeal reads, while the pathways participating in hydrogen production (FERMENTATION-PWY and PWY4LZ-257) were only detected in bacterial reads. Archaeal communities also possessed CAZyme gene families, with the top five being AA3, GH43, GT2, AA6, and CE9. In terms of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), the class of multidrug resistance was the most abundant ARG, accounting for 87.41% of archaeal ARG hits. Our study reveals the diverse composition and metabolic functions of archaea in pigs, suggesting that archaea might play important roles in swine nutrition and metabolism. Full article
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