The Dietary Risk Factors of Gastric Ulcers in Finishing Pigs from 16 Polish Farms

Abstract

Sudden death caused by the acute form of gastric ulceration has developed into a widely recognised health and welfare problem. The importance of different triggering factors is poorly understood. The study was carried out on finishers slaughtered in Poland. The collected animal-level data were transformed to a herd-level dataset, which included 27 predictor variables. From a total of 32,264 pig stomachs examined, 23,188 (71.9%) had gastric lesions. Total of 17,703 organs (54.9%) had ulcers. Scores 1 (hyperkeratotic) and 2 (erosions) were observed in 2958 (9.2%) and 2527 (7.8%), respectively. A significant (p < 0.05) association of the ulcer prevalence was found for a number of variables. Raising the level of protein significantly (p = 0.04) increased (ρ = 0.22) the occurrence of gastric ulcers. The addition of wheat bran (p = 0.02) and its growing share in feed composition had the contrary effect (ρ = −0.27). Feeding pelleted feed was significantly associated (p = 0.001) with the higher prevalence of the disease, opposite to liquid feeding (p = 0.0002) and supplementation of a mycotoxin deactivator (p = 0.0008). Although, the immediate transition from one feeding system to another in most of the farms is impossible, the addition of materials such as wheat bran, and routine supplementation with mycotoxin deactivators may be a practical and relatively low-cost solution.

Occurrence and distribution of gross and microscopic gastrointestinal lesions in pigs in Northern Kerala

“…Histologically, hyperkeratinised epithelium, mucosal erosions and ulcers of varying degrees of severity were observed and these could be associated with multifactorial etiologies (Cybulski et al, 2021). Cytoplasmic vacuolisation in gastric epithelial cells as observed in the present study might be attributed to an adaptive response at cellular level (Miller and Zachary, 2017).…”

“…Hyperkeratinisation in pars oesophagea as well as gastric mucosal ulceration were also mostly observed in the growers. Managemental practices, nutrition and infectious diseases predispose to the formation of gastric ulcers in swine (Cybulski et al, 2021). Chronic exposure to any of these risk factors that increased the fluid nature of the stomach, results in increased influx of the acidic contents into the non-glandular portion (De Witte et al, 2018).…”

Gastric Lesions in Culled Sows: An Underestimated Welfare Issue in Modern Swine Production

“…Other sow management practices could also be attributed to the high incidence of ulcers in recent years in Denmark and Poland. Regardless of the fact that all the animals examined in our study were fed pelleted feed, what is generally associated with the higher occurrence of gastric alterations [7,[22][23][24], other predisposing determinants might not remain underestimated. Among possible triggering factors, the presence of locomotory disorders in sows has already been proven to be significantly associated with the higher occurrence of gastric ulcer and scarification [12].…”

“…For obvious reasons, the vast majority of peer-reviewed reports on the prevalence of gastric lesions in pigs deal with the data obtained from finishers at slaughter [7][8][9][10]. Much less is known about the frequency of the disease among sows.…”

Causes of Sow Mortality and Risks to Post-Mortem Findings in a Brazilian Intensive Swine Production System

“…Despite these values, these data are consistent with other studies [ 3 , 7 , 8 , 17 ]. A higher occurrence of gastric ulcers can also indicate problems with animal welfare [ 26 , 50 ].…”