CHOPIN is a public_private project to develop commercial-viable nutritional tools to significantly reduce the mortality of weaned piglets and the use of therapeutic antimicrobials.
Main concerns of the porcine production reside on the elevated mortality observed in lactation and post-weaning periods. Mortality and slow growing piglets are particularly relevant for the pig industry, as these pigs bring inefficiencies in term of feed and resources and increase the final variability of the market group. The gut damage and the slowing down in growth promoted by episodes of diarrhoea could represent a loss of up to 4 kg at the end of growth.
CHOPIN will explore and evaluate dietary carbohydrate fractions, particularly the fermentability of dietary fibre in common feed ingredients, local ingredients, and co-products. This intelligence will be applied to develop new screening tools to assess gastrointestinal properties of feed ingredients, allowing for better use of fibrous protein sources.
