The aim of this study was to determine the possibility of using duckweed in sustainable livestock production and aquaculture. Duckweed is a small plant which grows in water and is exploited in biotechnology, dietetics, phytotherapy, and ecotoxicology. It is also used for biological waste-water treatment, and for biogas and ethanol production. This study provides the characteristics of duckweed and presents results indicating its applicability in livestock feeding. Duckweed is a rich source of proteins and amino acids, and contains many macro- and micronutrients as well as vitamins and carotenoids. Unfortunately, it accumulates considerable amounts of toxic metals and compounds from the aquatic environment, which may limit its use as a feed ingredient. Fresh or dried duckweed is willingly consumed by animals (poultry – laying hens, broiler chickens, ducks; cows, sheep, goats, swine, fish) and is a valuable protein source to them. It has been scientifically demonstrated that its use in moderate amounts or as a partial replacement of other protein feed materials, including soybean meal, has a beneficial effect on the productivity, fattening, and slaughter performance of livestock and poultry as well as on the quality of their meat and eggs. Research addressing duckweed use as a feed ingredient should focus on developing various growth media technologies, including the use of slurry digestate, to obtain high biomass yields. Another research direction should be to determine risks in the production chain (collection, processing), which limit its use in monogastric and ruminant diets.

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This study aimed to explain the possibility of partial replacement of genetically-modified soybean meal (SBM GM) with pea seeds and rapeseed meal (RSM) in complete feed mixtures for growing-finishing pigs and to determine its impact on meat quality and health-promoting indices. The pigs (n = 50) were randomly divided into five groups, 10 animals each (gilts and barrows, 1:1, 3-breed: ♀ (landrace × yorkshire) × ♂ duroc), including the control group (C) and four experimental groups (E1, E2, E3, E4), and fed complete feed mixtures. The SBM GM was the only protein source in feed mixtures for control pigs. In feed mixtures for E1–E4 groups, it was partially replaced with pea seed doses of 5.0%, 10.0%, 15.0%, and 17.5% in groups E1, E2, E3, and E4, respectively. The feed mixtures were iso-energetic and iso-protein. After completed fattening, the animals were slaughtered. M. longissimus lumborum was sampled for analyses of the chemical and physical traits. The fatty acid profile determined in intramuscular fat (IMF) was used to compute the values of the health-promoting indices. The chemical and physical characteristics of meat were comparable in all groups. The study showed a dietetically-beneficial decrease in the values of atherogenicity index (AI), thrombogenicity index (TI), and saturation (S/P) in the meat of the experimental pigs vs. control group. The values of most of the analyzed quality attributes of pork justify using alternative protein sources as partial SBM GM replacers in diets for growing-finishing pigs in sustainable animal production.

Improvement of lowly heritable traits is difficult, efforts must be made to take full advantage of the available information sources to improve them. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of the size of the litter in which the sow was born on her lifetime reproductive performance. Data on 22,683 litters were used to analyse the lifetime reproductive performance of 5623 Polish Large White sows. The sows from small litters (≤9) were on average the oldest at first farrowing, had the shortest herd life, the smallest number of litters, and the smallest sized litters (p ≤ 0.01). A positive relationship was established between the mean number of offspring born per litter and size of the litter in which the sow was born (p ≤ 0.01). For a sow to produce at least seven piglets per 100 days of reproduction, gilts from litters of at least 12 piglets should be selected for breeding.