Avaliação da qualidade nutricional e segurança alimentar de ingredientes e rações fornecidos para suínos gestantes e leitões

Abstract

The assessment of the nutritional composition and quality of feed is of fundamental importance, as feed represents a large percentage of animal production cost. Changes in feed composition can alter metabolisms, reduce digestive capacity and growth, hence affecting the production performance and profits which are more critical in smaller swine farms. In this paper we report on an evaluation of the nutritional quality [proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, fibre, calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P)] and safety [mycotoxins, moisture content (mc) and water activity (a_w)] of feed ingredients and final products in pregnant swine (gilts/sows) and off-spring (piglets) from a small production farm in Southern Brazil. From the nutrition quality data obtained, feed ingredients such as soybean meal, rice meal and corn presented protein average content of 46.35%, 13.94% and 8.88%, respectively. As far as anti-nutritional factors are concerned, the urease level in the soybean meal used for swine feed production was of 0.03% (0.01 to 0.09). For the two different swine formulations analysed, the fibre values obtained were 1.74% and 2.14% for piglet and pregnancy feed, respectively. The Ca and P levels found in the two formulation samples were 0.499 & 0.715% and 0.753 & 0.963%, respectively. As far as the samples’ safety parameters are concerned, the average mc & a_w obtained were 12.30% & 0.66% for corn, 9.77% & 0.64 for rice meal and 12.93%  & 0.67% for soybean meal. In addition to this, the moisture levels found were high enough for fungi proliferation and mycotoxin production. 10% of samples showed some contamination by mycotoxins (AFLs and ZON). OTA and EST were not found in any of the tests performed (LOD: 1; LOQ: 2µg/kg). Our results demonstrated that small farms are able to produce animal feed within the recommended nutritional standards. However, the implementation of quality assurance practices, to prevent nutritional fluctuations are necessary and can contribute to improving the production process and then enhancing its profitability.