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Pig feeding systems are mainly based on the use of conventional diets, based on soybeans and cereals, to fully exploit the genetic potential of the maternal and meat lines that are produced today. The genetic improvement of maternal lines leads to animals with greater development, and better production, in terms of litter size and reproductive longevity (Ordaz-Ochoa et al. 2013). That is why the diets for sows must be well balanced so as not to affect productive and reproductive parameters (Kim 2010).
The management of the breeding sow directly influences on the weight at born, weaning, growth, final weight of pigs, among others. Feeding in the gestating sow is restricted to avoid overweight and problems at the farrowing time (Quiles and Hevia 2015). This type of diet causes chronic hunger in animals and gives rise to different degrees of stereotypes. To avoid these behaviors and favor animal welfare, alternative fibrous (grasses) and bulky (silage) foods are successfully used, without any effects on the productive indicators of commercial sows were showing (Bernardino et al. 2016).
Currently, the global crisis that has caused climate change, the production of biofuels and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes the need to apply new feeding systems in pigs, which allow reducing costs because of this concept (García et al. 2020). In the Republic of Ecuador there are alternative sources that can be used successfully in the feeding of reproductive sows, such as panela cane and waste taro tubers, which through biotechnological procedures, such as silage, generate functional food with good nutrient content for animals (Caicedo et al. 2020). The objective of this study was to evaluate the chemical characteristics of taro tubers silage (Colocasia esculenta L. Schott) with panela cane (POJ93) and its effect on productive indicators of gestating commercial sows.
Materials and Methods
Location. The research was carried out in the Bromatology laboratory from the Amazonian State University, and in the facilities of the gestation sector of Caicedo Agricultural Farm, both located in Pastaza canton, Pastaza province, Ecuador. The study area has a humid subtropical climate, with rainfall ranging between 4000 and 4500 mm annually, average relative humidity of 87 %, temperatures between 20 and 32 ºC and altitude of 900 m o.s.l. (INAMHI 2014).
Elaboration of silage. Waste taro tubers and panela cane from two days post-harvest were used. The taro tubers and the panela cane were collected on the lands from Caicedo Agricultural Farm. Later, they were washed with drinking water for human consumption, drained for 10 min. and they were ground fresh with a mixed mill, with blades and a 2.0 cm sieve. For the formulation of the silage, chopped taro tubers (50 %), chopped cane (22 %), molasses (2 %), wheat dust (20 %), vitaminized pecutrin (0.5 %), calcium carbonate (0.5 %) and natural yogurt (5 %) were combined. Subsequently, a homogeneous mixture with all the ingredients was carried out on a flat concrete floor, covered with plastic, at room temperature. A part of this mixture was placed in plastic microsilos, with a capacity for 1 kg, and it was evaluated at 1, 4, 8, 15 and 30 d to carry out the respective laboratory analyzes. The mixture was deposited in dark plastic bags until the moment of use.
Measurement of pH in the silage. The pH was measured in 25 microsilos, on days 1, 4, 8, 15 and 30 of the fermentation process, five for each testing day. For the pH measurement, aqueous extract was used, composed of a portion of 25 g of silage and 250 mL of distilled water (Cherney and Cherney 2003).
Determination of chemical components in silage. The determination of the chemical components of the silage was carried out on day 8 of fermentation, in accordance with recommendations for this type of food (Caicedo et al. 2020). Dry matter (DM), crude proteins (CP), ether extract (EE), crude fiber (CF), ash and nitrogen-free extracts (NFE) were verified, according to the AOAC (2005). The calculation of gross energy (GE) was carried out according to Ewan (1989).
Management of animals and facilities. The research was carried out according to the regulations for Animal Welfare of the Republic of Ecuador, in accordance with AGROCALIDAD (2017), and the experimental protocol, according to Sakomura and Rostagno (2007). After confirmation of pregnancy by ultrasound, 28 days after artificial insemination, the selection of 30 F1 sows from the commercial cross (Landrace x Duroc), from second farrowing, with an average live weight of 218.87 ± 2.85 kg. A total of 15 sows per treatment were used, and each sow constituted an experimental unit. They were placed in individual metal cages, 0.65 m x 2.40 m (1.56 m2), arranged in the gestation building until 110 d. Later, they moved to the maternity area until farrowing. Each cage had an individual hopper-type feeder and a nipple drinker.
Verification of productive indicators and the feeding cost in gestating. The final weight of the sows, total born piglets, total live born piglets, litter weight at born, piglet weight at born and food intake per sow were evaluated (Zverina et al. 2015 and Campler et al. 2019 ). For the feeding cost, the costs of raw matters, additives and direct labor were considered (Rodríguez-Medina et al. 2012).
Food management. A total of 0 and 50 % of taro tubers silage with panela cane of 8-day production was included. The diets under study were formulated according to Rostagno et al. (2011) (table 1). The food was offered once a day (09:00 a.m.). Between days 28 and 70 of gestation, 2.4 kg of DM /sow/d was supplied, and between day 71 until farrowing, 2.6 kg of DM/sow/d was provided. In the treatment that included silage, before offering the sows, a homogeneous mixture was made with other ingredients showed in the formulation. The drinking water was permanently supplied in nipple drinkers.
Table 1 Composition and contribution of nutrients of the experimental diets (% DW)
| Raw matters | Silage inclusion levels, % | |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 50 | |
| Yellow corn | 46.00 | 11.00 |
| Protein concentrate1 | 5.00 | 13.00 |
| Orito banana silage with cane | - | 50.00 |
| Wheat dust | 25.60 | 33.60 |
| Vitamin mineral premixture2 | 0.40 | 0.40 |
| Nutrient supply | ||
| Crude protein,% | 13.96 | 13.32 |
| Crude fiber, % | 5.29 | 6.16 |
| Cost, dollars/kg DM | 0.50 | 0.32 |
1Ingredients: soybean paste, rice co-products, wheat; DGGs from corn, wheat by-products, palm oil, bakery by-products, cane molasses, calcium carbonate, sodium chloride, 78 % L-lysine, dicalcium phosphate, 50 % propionic acid, sodium aluminosilicate, DL-methionine 99 % and L-threonine 98 %. Nutrient supply: protein 34 %, fat 4 %, fiber 5 %, ash 7 %, humidity 13 %, lysine 0.92 % and methionine 0.27 %.
2Vitamin and mineral premixture: Vit. A, 2,666,660 IU; Vit. D3, 533,300 IU; Vit E, 4667 IU; Vit K3, 1,200 mg; Vit B1, 200 mg; Vit B2, 13,336 mg; Vit B6, 133 mg; vit B12, 6667μg; folic acid, 34 mg; niacin, 10,000 mg; pantothenic acid, 666,666 mg; biotin, 20 mg; bolin, 62 g; iron, 40 mg; copper, 86,805 mg; cobalt, 334 mg; manganese, 30,000 mg; zinc, 46,666 mg; selenium, 67 mg; iodine, 400 mg; antioxidant 40 g and vehicle qsp, 1000 g
Experimental design and statistical analysis. To analyze the pH results, a completely randomized design was used and Duncan’s (1955) test was applied to contrast the means with P <0.05. For the processing of chemical composition data (DM, CP, CF, EE, ash, NFE and GE), descriptive statistics were used and the mean and standard deviation were checked. The production index and feeding cost experiment was carried out using a completely randomized design. The assumptions of the model of normality and homogeneity of variance were examined using the Shapiro-Wilk and Levene tests, respectively. The results were statistically analyzed by one-way ANOVA, with dietary treatment as the main factor. Fisher (1954) test (P <0.05) was used to contrast the means. All analyzes were carried out with the statistical program InfoStat (Di Rienzo et al. 2017).
Results and Discussion
In the evaluation of the pH there were differences (P <0.0001) during the study days. The highest pH value was found on day one and between 4 and 30 days it was stable (table 2).
Table 2 Performance of pH in taro tubers silage with panela cane
| Variable | Days | SE± | P value | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 8 | 15 | 30 | |||
| pH | 5.54a | 4.15b | 4.15b | 4.15b | 4.15b | 0.02 | P = 0.0001 |
ab Different letters show differences at the level of P <0.05
The pH in the silos is one of the most important indicators to be able to conserve the silage for a long time (Romero et al. 2017). The rapid decrease in pH in silos is due to the initial inoculation with lactic bacteria, which have the ability to produce lactic acid and rapidly reduce the pH of the medium (Silva et al. 2016). The acidic medium limits the growth of pathogenic microorganisms, such as Escherichia coli (Ogunade et al. 2016). Likewise, it allows avoiding DM losses, derived from contamination by clostridia (Borreani et al. 2018 and Hartinger et al. 2019).
The taro tubers silage with panela cane showed good content of DM, CP, ash, NFE, GE and low levels of EE and CF (table 3).
Table 3 Chemical characteristics of taro tubers silage with panela cane
| Nutrients | Mean | SD |
|---|---|---|
| DM, % | 70.99 | 0.01 |
| CP, % | 7.01 | 1.24 |
| EE, % | 1.31 | 0.03 |
| CF, % | 6.13 | 1.21 |
| Ash, % | 13.16 | 1.05 |
| NFE, % | 72.42 | 1.36 |
| GE, kJ/kg DM | 895.21 | 2.72 |
The silage showed high DM content. In sugar cane silage treated with different additives, Santos et al. (2009) obtained lower DM values (32 %) with respect to those obtained in this research. The highest DM content in this study is related to the use of drying material (rice and wheat dust) (Borras-Sandoval et al. 2017). A DM content in the silage higher than 32% inhibits the development of putrefactive microorganisms that affect the useful life of the silage material (Lima et al. 2017 and Kung et al. 2018) and could cause effects on health and productive performance of the animals (Gismervik et al. 2015).
Regarding CP, in the silage there was an increase in protein with respect to the raw matters in their natural state (Aguirre et al. 2010), which is due to the unicellular protein or also called natural protein concentrate, developed during the fermentation process (Nasseri et al. 2011, Suman et al. 2015 and Ritala et al. 2017). Caicedo et al. (2019) used as substrate ground taro tubers, dehydrated and inoculated with natural yogurt on day 8 of fermentation, and obtained a significant protein increase, compared to the tuber in its natural state.
The silage showed high ash content, which is due to the inclusion of calcium carbonate (Fonseca-López et al. 2018) and to the bioavailability of minerals resulting from the fermentation process of vegetable raw matters (Aguirre et al. 2010, Famakin et al. 2016, Nkhata et al. 2018 and Samtiya et al. 2021).
The fiber and fat contents of the silage were low, and were in the appropriate range for use in pigs feeding (Bertechini 2013). The NFE and GE contents of taro tubers silage with panela cane were high. These indicators are related to the starch and sugar content of the raw matters of the silage origin (taro and cane). Due to the characteristics described, these foods are widely used as an energy source for animal feeding (Suksombat and Junpanichcharo 2005).
Table 4 shows the productive indices and the feeding cost of gestating sows that intake taro tuber silage with panela cane. There were no differences (P ˃ 0.05) for the final weight of sows, piglets born at birth, piglets born alive at birth, litter weight, piglet weight at born and food intake. There were differences (P <0.0001) for the feeding cost per sow.
Table 4 Productive indices and feeding cost in commercial gestating sows, fed with taro tubers silage with panela cane
| Variables | Silage inclusion levels , % | SE± | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 50 | |||
| Initial weight , kg | 218.33 | 219.40 | 0.74 | P=0.3136 |
| Final weight , kg | 248.47 | 249.53 | 0.78 | P=0.3399 |
| Piglets born at birth | 14.00 | 13.93 | 0.17 | P=0.7902 |
| Piglets born alive at birth | 13.40 | 13.40 | 0.15 | P=0.9899 |
| Litter weight, kg | 21.39 | 21.98 | 0.39 | P=0.3063 |
| Piglet weight at born, kg | 1.53 | 1.58 | 0.02 | P=0.1853 |
| Food intake, kg | 212.65 | 212.71 | 0.16 | P=0.7664 |
| Cost per sow, dollars | 132.90b | 85.09a | 0.10 | P=0.0001 |
ab Different letters show differences at the level of P <0.05, according to Fisher (1954)
The inclusion of 50 % of taro tubers silage with panela cane in the diet of gestating sows did not had a negative effect on the final weight of sows, piglets born at birth, piglets born live at birth, litter weight, piglet weight at born and food intake. In this sense, recent researches has focused on the use of alternative foods in gestating sows to avoid excessive weight gain and body fat, since these factors can cause problems during farrowing , negative situations for the survival of piglets (Guillemet et al. 2006 and Muñoz et al. 2011).
The optimal productive performance of gestating sows is achieved because the nutritional demand in this category is relatively low (Kraeling and Webel 2015). In the pig industry, gestating sows are supplied with between 50 and 60 % of voluntary intake (Mroz and Tarkowski 1991). The latest trends in the nutrition of gestating sows show that to satisfy the chronic hunger experienced by sows during gestation, bulky feeds are successfully used to induce satiety and reduce the appearance of stereotyped behaviors, which guarantees the welfare of the sows. (Robert et al. 2002). On the other hand, the intake of bulky food during gestation guarantees a higher intake of dry matter during lactation (Guillemet et al. 2006 and Darroch et al. 2008).
The sows that intake silage showed lower feeding cost. The feeding costs are the most important and their magnitude shows the level of profits for the farm (Estévez 2016, Bauza et al. 2018 and Sánchez et al. 2018). In this regard, Magaña et al. (2002) point out that the relative costs of sow feeding represent 15.1 % in full cycle farms.
Conclusions
The inclusion of 50 % of taro tubers silage (Colocasia esculenta L. Schott) with panela cane (POJ93) in the diet of commercial gestating sows under the Ecuadorian Amazon conditions did not affect the productive performance and reduced the production cost in the stage .Therefore, its incorporation into the diet constitutes an alternative food source with optimal nutritional characteristics for this category.
