Heat Stress in Pigs

STRESS and NUTRITION
Maintain the physiological and oxidative balance of your pigs with animal nutrition

During the breeding cycle, the animal has continuously been subjected to stressful events: temperature changes, diet changes, vaccinations, treatments, and many other stress factors which compromise its well-being and, consequently, its production.

The effect of stress is the set of a series of complicated interconnected responses that often result in a general decrease in the animal’s immune defences since through the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, it increases the production of cortisol, with an immunosuppressive role.

Further aggravating the general picture of the effects of stress is the increase in ROS production (Reactive oxygen species), which occurs: the so-called free radicals. An animal organism is equipped with systems capable of preventing the production of cellular metabolism from predisposing the cell to oxidative damage. However, under stressed conditions, the high ROS production saturates all these antioxidant systems until the cell’s death.

Preserving the state of animal health is a prerogative of the pig meat industry, and a possible intervention against stress is to modulate the effects if they are inevitable.

Several studies show how the extracts of some plants intervene in reducing the impact of stress.

NORMOTERM is a product based on plants and derivatives to support the organism’s physiological and oxidative balance. It is a product available in both powder and liquid form. The powder version is enriched with vitamin C, while the liquid version with vitamin PP.  Both vitamins enhance the antioxidant activities of the natural components in the products and intervene in various metabolic processes.

NORMOTERM ORAC is similar to the previous products but with plant-based polyphenols to enhance its antioxidant effect. Several studies recognize the powerful antioxidant action of polyphenols. Some authors report a higher efficiency of these molecules than the common antioxidants used in animal nutrition such as Vitamin C and E.

For further information about the products, write tecnozoo@tecnozoo.it