New measures against weaning diarrhoea

Since medicinal zinc was phased out at Danish pig farms on 26 June 2022, many producers have been looking for new answers as to how to prevent weaning diarrhoea in piglets without increasing antibiotic usage. SEGES Innovation is therefore participating in three projects with various universities, institutions and companies to prevent weaning diarrhoea.

Proteins from llamas prevent intestinal infections

A project that is well into the development phase is Ablacto+, which contains nanobodies extracted from antibodies. Nanobodies help to bind the bacteria that trigger diarrhoea. The bound bacteria cannot be attached to the lining of the intestine, but are excreted into the faeces, which means that pigs do not produce diarrhoea. It is an additive in the form of a protein that is given to pigs in feed.

"Ablacto+ is a new product developed by Bactolife ApS, which is currently being tested at Grønhøj test station. In the long term, it has the potential to offer an alternative to antibiotics when weaning diarrhoea occurs in piglets. The proteins are extracted from llama blood. The protein can then be replicated at a Novozymes laboratory, a partner in the project,” says Niels Jørgen Kjeldsen, Senior Adviser, SEGES Innovation.

The current project is supported by GUDP (Green Development and Demonstration Programme). In addition to Bactolife ApS, Novozymes and SEGES Innovation, Denmark’s Technical University and Aarhus University are also part of the partnership. So far, Ablacto+ has been tested at Aarhus University in an infection trial where coli bacteria that cause diarrhoea have been present. The pigs that received Ablacto+ through their feed had a reduced incidence of coli bacteria and increased growth compared to the control group. The project is expected to be concluded by the end of 2022.

Vaccine against weaning diarrhoea developed alongside Covid-19 vaccine

In another project, Copenhagen University, SEGES Innovation and the vaccine company, AdaptVac, are developing a vaccine against weaning diarrhoea. To this end, scientists at the university are using the same technology used to develop the Danish Covid-19 vaccine. The project goes by the name of PIGVAC and has a budget of DKK 14.7 million of which DKK 11 million includes support from the Innovation Fund.

"The technological platform used for the Covid vaccine can be used for other vaccines. The platform has given human vaccines a very long protection period. The scientists develop the vaccines by using virus-like particles to which antigens can be attached, i.e. what you want protection against, on the surface of the particles,” says Poul Bækbo, Senior Adviser, SEGES Innovation:

"When this is injected into a pig, the body perceives it as a virus and begins to form antibodies against what is on the surface, i.e. the spike proteins that we know from the Covid virus.”

The vaccine protects the pigs in the long term by strengthening their immune system so that they form antibodies against Lawsonia, Brachyspira and E. coli. The next step in the vaccine development is to test the vaccine in a production herd of sows that will be able to pass the antibodies on to their piglets through their colostrum. The project is expected to be completed in December 2023.