SEAWEEDS IN PIG DIET; THE EFFECT ON HEALTH AND MEAT.

A recent scientific overview points to their role as additives for their potential effects for pig health and meat quality.The researchers start off by diving a little bit in history. In the 19th and early 20th centuries in Gotland (Sweden), pigs were fed with a mixture of boiled brown algae F. vesiculosus and cereal meal. A similar use was reported in 1980 in Loch Feochan (Scotland, UK), where boiled or raw brown algae Pelvetia species were fed with oatmeal to fatten pigs. Nowadays, seaweeds are fed as additives in low amounts (1-2%) for their potential benefits for pig health and meat quality. Seaweeds as a iodine source, In regions where part of the population suffers from iodine deficiency, the use of seaweeds in pig feeding has been proposed to increase iodine concentration in pig meat, as the organic iodine found in seaweeds such as Laminaria or Ascophyllum is readily metabolized and stored in the pig muscle, unlike inorganic iodine, as was demonstrated in 2010. Feeding pigs with a diet containing 2% of dried A. nodosum (the seaweed-based diet contained 10 mg/kg of iodine vs 1 mg/kg for the control diet) increased the concentration of iodine in animal tissues by 2.7-6.8, depending on the tissue. This feeding strategy for producing iodine-enriched meat was found to be an easily controllable contribution to human iodine supply, without risk for overdosing or the need for shift in eating pattern, but this contribution was considered insufficient to solve the actual iodine deficiency at country level in Belgium, as was described in 2009. Seaweeds and seaweed extracts have been shown to have prebiotic effects and to enhance immune function in pigs, and have been assessed as potential antibiotic replacers in pigs. For instance, laminarin and fucoidan extracted from Laminaria species were found to improve piglet performance, with laminarin being the main source for gut health and performance improvements, which was reported in 2009 and 2010. The inclusion of seaweeds as a feed additive,not only has probiotic effect ,but results in production of pork of better quality. Story (culled from materials in the animal feed science and technology.)