01 Jul Pioneering probiotics: how the yeast probiotic Actisaf® helps shape generation of good quality piglets
By Olivier Merdy, Global Swine Program Manager

To meet global pork demands in the face of current economic, regulatory, and sustainability requirements, the swine industry constantly needs to boost productivity. For this reason, breeding units have embraced hyperprolific sows with their ability to produce more piglets per litter. This shift presents challenges, however, related to rising nutritional demands for sows and the quality of their piglets. To maximize performance, while upholding animal welfare and health standards, breeding units must adopt advanced nutritional and health management solutions. With modern breeds, addressing gut modulation with Actisaf® Sc47 can be a key success factor, delivering more, and better quality, weaned piglets.
Managing a sow’s gut microbiota by supplementing her diet with the yeast probiotic Actisaf® Sc47 during late gestation and lactation has been proven to deliver several benefits:
- Supporting nutritional requirements: A healthy microbiota supports the nutritional requirement of the sow, contributing to fetal growth and mammary gland development during gestation. It also provides energy for parturition, enhances the nutritional value of colostrum, and improves milk production.
- Resilience to feed transition: The microbiota appears more resilient to variations in feed composition during the dietary transition from gestation to lactation. This resilience reduces the risk of constipation, helping to lower the risk of stillborn and/or low-vitality piglets.
- Seeding beneficial bacteria to piglets: A healthy microbiota helps seed the right bacteria to piglets. Indeed, the current consensus is that the piglet gut is colonized from birth by the sow’s microbiota via different pathways such as the vagina, feces, farrowing environment, and by the colostrum and milk. The development of gut microbiota during the neonatal stage plays an important role in the development of both the intestinal system and nutrient absorption. This supports the development of the immune system in piglets, thus ensuring their good health status. In addition, modulating the sow’s microbiota helps to control the instability of her piglet’s microbiota. This prevents the establishment of pathogenic bacteria in the piglet which can jeopardize both growth and survival.
- Improved immunological profile: An enhanced immunological profile for colostrum and milk, respectively, in IgG and IgA content, can also be achieved. This improves a piglet’s resistance to pathogens until its own immune system is mature enough to build its own immunity.
In summary, managing sow microbiota during late gestation and lactation is highly important and beneficial for both sows and piglets.
How do these benefits translate into reproductive performance in the era of hyperprolific breeds?
A recent meta-analysis, drawing on results obtained within hyperprolific breeds, was carried out to check the efficacy of Actisaf® Sc47 in relation to improving the reproductive parameters of modern sows under commercial field operations.
Seven studies, carried out between 2012 and 2023, were used to assess the performance of more than 3000 weaned litters from sows given the Actisaf® Sc47 during the last month of gestation and lactation (Table 1). In terms of genetic background and prolificacy, the majority of the studies were conducted in hyperprolific breeds.

Based on statistical modeling, the meta-analysis showed that Actisaf® Sc47 improved the number of live-born piglets per litter by 0.56 (p = 0.009). The total number of piglets born was only higher by 0.20 (p = 0.56), however, suggesting farrowing performance was in supplemented sows.
At weaning, following litter equalization during the early period, the number of weaned piglets from supplemented sows remained significantly higher, by 0.30 per litter, (Figure 1). In addition, on-farm performance, where sows had their highest prolificacy (SP3), supplemented sows were still able to wean an additional 0.4 piglets, compared to un-supplemented sows. This resulted in a final litter size of 14.5 from supplemented sows versus 14.1 from un-supplemented. On farms where two consecutive cycles were followed, the number of weaned piglets per sow, after supplementation, became even higher during the second cycle on both farms.

An extra 230g per piglet was achieved in piglets weaned by sows whose diets were supplemented with Actisaf® Sc47 (Figure 2). Litters of supplemented sows were also 4.12 kg heavier. This performance improvement was observed in both sows weaned early and those weaned late. It was also noted that, based on four data records (including the test site IT), the lactation period was shorter by 0.5 to 1.0 days in supplemented sows than un–supplemented sows. This contrasted with results from other test sites where lactation time was similar between supplemented and un-supplemented groups. Given this difference, it could be argued that the improvement in weaning weights is underestimated on these farms, potentially leading to an underestimation of the global meta-analysis outcome.

In conclusion, to meet consumer demand while producing pork more efficiently than previously, the swine industry’s shift toward hyperprolific breeds has raised new challenges in relation to the increasing nutritional demands of sows and the quality of the piglets which are being produced. Through microbiota modulation, however, dietary supplementation in sows with the yeast probiotic Actisaf® Sc47 has proven to positively influence the nutritional status of sows, ensuring an increased availability of nutrients and energy as well as providing piglets with better microbiota and immunity. In terms of production numbers, this consistently translates into a high number of healthy piglets with higher weaning weights—a must-have for successful nursery and grower/finisher stages.
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