Farmscape for February 25, 2022
| Full Interview 11:17 | Listen  |
Researchers with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine are working to develop strategies that will allow an increased use of pea starch in swine rations. Extremely finely ground feed ingredients are known to cause gastric ulcers in pigs which can reduce performance or even kill the animal. In response to an increased availability of pea starch, scientists with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine are conducting research aimed at increasing the inclusion of pea starch in swine rations. Dr. Matt Loewen, an Associate Professor in Veterinary Medical Biosciences with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, says, by better understanding the cause of these ulcers, scientists will be able to optimize the use of pea starch.
Clip-Dr. Matt Loewen-Western College of Veterinary Medicine:
In western Canada right now producers are producing a lot more pulses. From this there is a demand for pulse proteins.
A big chunk of that comes from the human side of things, putting it into power bars and things like that. A byproduct of producing all of this protein is starch. In order to get the protein out of the bean, you have to grind it quite finely and, when you grind it quite finely, you also grind the starch quite finely and we know from past experience and what’s in the literature that finely ground starch generally causes gastric ulcers in pigs. There’s an erosion in the lining of the stomach that then goes all the way through to the blood vessels and that erosion in the lining of the stomach, the pig can actually bleed out. On the other side of the spectrum it can be an irritation in the stomach. If you have an upset stomach you don’t eat as much and that’s essentially what happens with the pig so there’s less gain of that pig. That’s why you don’t want that to occur. You can have anything from death to poor production.
Dr. Loewen says researchers hope to identify the mechanisms that result in gastric ulcers, determine safe inclusion levels without modifying the diet and develop strategies that will allow inclusion rates to be increased.
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