Compositions intended to increase piglet appetite

Description

The present invention relates to compositions comprising aromatic substances contained in pig milk.

Nowadays, after several studies on piglets, we know that the voluntary level of food intake is influenced by different factors such as the ingredients and their digestibility, palatability, forms of presentation (type of processing), the systems and modes used for rationing, water availability, etc. In current intensive production conditions piglets must quickly adapt to the change from breast milk to compound feed, which affects their voluntary feed intake and therefore their nutrient intake; this change causes mediocre results regarding growth and the manifestation of digestive pathologies. In the past, digestive pathologies were prevented by the use of growth promoting antibiotics and metallic trace elements (Zn, Cu). The ban of antibiotic growth promoters in January of 2006 in the European Union and limitations on the use of Zn and Cu make it necessary to search for alternative solutions. The most interesting of these are prebiotics, probiotics, enzymes, acidifiers and plant extracts. A supplementary strategy to the alternatives mentioned above is the use of flavouring substances to increase voluntary feed intake by attraction and appetite.

It is known that it is possible to increase voluntary intake by incorporating sensory additives in feedstuffs that increase appetite. Thus, patent US4125629 describes a flavouring composition to be mixed with piglet feedstuffs consisting in aldehydes, alcohols, esters and terpenes. Patent US5906842 describes a composition that stimulates appetite in dairy cows, comprising a preparation of corn, lysine and methionine. Patent US6592924 describes flavouring combinations comprising alkylphenols and cyclohexanecarboxylic acids or their alkyl-substituted derivatives that can

be added to feedstuffs for pets. Patent application EP174821 describes flavouring compositions to improve its acceptability to livestock, comprising n-hexanal, cis-3-hexen-1 -ol, 1 -octen-3-ol and beta-ionone, amongst other components. Patent application EP951840 describes flavouring compositions for feedstuffs containing 2-acetyl-2-thiazoline and its precursors, as well as other ingredients such as alkylated thiazolidines, 2- methyl-3-furanthiol and mercaptopentanone.

JP 10 146156 describes the addition of peach flavor to pellet feed for pigs. Peach flavour comprises ethyl n-butyrate, gamma-nonalactone, 2- methylbutene-3, gamma-undecalactone, benzaldehyde, maltol, and isocratic acid.

WO 2004/091307 describes animal feed additives which are claimed to protect animals from disease.

The state of the art compositions may cause intolerance in animals since they contain components that are foreign to them. This aspect is extremely important when the animals to be fed have short lifetimes, which makes them more vulnerable to the intake of new substances.

In contrast, the great advantage of the compositions of the present invention is that all their ingredients except the liquid base (propylene glycol) are already present in the maternal milk, thus ensuring tolerance.

On the other hand, the ingredients of the present invention are easy to prepare for a person skilled in the art or can be purchased in the market, which represents an added advantage of the invention.

The compositions of the present invention can stimulate voluntary feed intake and thus improve the stress suffered by piglets during the transition from the sow's milk to solid feed in the form of complete feedstuffs. The

compositions have been created by the combination of some of the flavouring substances found in colostrum and sow's milk by means of extractions and gas chromatography such that combining them in certain proportions, different to those they have in natural products, they surprisingly increase feed consumption in piglets when added to said feed stuffs.

In a first embodiment, the present invention relates to flavouring compositions comprising from 70 to 90% of propylene glycol, from 6 to 10% of vanillin, from 6 to 12% of gamma-nonalactone, from 0.5% to 1 % of an acetic acid (C ₄ -C ₅ ) linear or branched alkyl ester, from 0.05 to 0.25% of an orange essential oil, from 0.05 to 0.25% of a benzoic acid (Ci-C ₅ ) linear or branched alkyl ester, from 0.05 to 0.25% of a cinnamic acid (C1-C3) linear or branched alkyl ester, from 0.25 to 1 % of benzyl butyrate, and from 0.2 to 2% in total of one or two butyric acid (CrCβ) linear or branched alkyl esters.

d-Cβ-Alkyl is a linear or branched alkyl group having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms. Examples include methyl, C ₂ -C ₄ -alkyl such as ethyl, n-propyl, iso- propyl, n-butyl, 2-butyl, iso-butyl or tert-butyl, and also pentyl, 1 -methylbutyl, 2-methylbutyl, 3-methylbutyl, 2,2-dimethylpropyl, 1-ethylpropyl, hexyl, 1 ,1- dimethylpropyl, 1 ,2-dimethylpropyl, 1 -methylpentyl, 2-methylpentyl, 3- methylpentyl, 4-methylpentyl, 1 ,1-dimethylbutyl, 1 ,2-dimethylbutyl, 1 ,3- dimethylbutyl, 2,2-dimethylbutyl, 2,3-dimethylbutyl, 3,3-dimethylbutyl, 1 - ethylbutyl, 2-ethylbutyl, 1 ,1 ,2-trimethylpropyl, 1 ,2,2-trimethylpropyl, 1 -ethyl- 1 -methylpropyl, 1 -ethyl-2-methylpropyl and mixtures of isomeric alkyl groups.

In another embodiment of the present invention the acetic acid (C ₄ -C ₅ ) linear or branched alkyl ester is isoamyl acetate.

In another embodiment of the present invention the orange essential oil is Brazil orange essential oil.

In another embodiment of the present invention the benzoic acid (C ₁ -C ₅ ) linear or branched alkyl ester is ethyl benzoate.

In another embodiment of the present invention the cinnamic acid (C ₁ -C ₃ ) linear or branched alkyl ester is methyl cinnamate.

In another embodiment of the present invention the butyric acid (CrCβ) linear or branched alkyl esters are chosen from isoamyl butyrate and ethyl butyrate. In a particular embodiment, the composition of the invention comprises a mixture of isoamyl butyrate and ethyl butyrate.

In another embodiment of the present invention the composition comprises from 0.1 to 1 % of a first butyric acid (CrCβ) linear or branched alkyl ester, in particular of isoamyl butyrate, and from 0.1 to 1 % of a second butyric acid (CrC ₆ ) linear or branched alkyl ester, in particular of ethyl butyrate.

In another embodiment of the present invention the composition comprises from 71.55 to 87.45% of propylene glycol.

In another embodiment of the present invention the composition comprises from 7.20 to 8.80% of vanillin.

In another embodiment of the present invention the composition comprises from 8.94 to 10.92% of gamma-nonalactone.

In another embodiment of the present invention the composition comprises from 0.73 to 0.89% of a acetic acid (C ₄ -C ₅ ) linear or branched alkyl ester, in particular of isoamyl acetate.

In another embodiment of the present invention the composition comprises from 0.09 to 0.11 % of an orange essential oil, in particular of Brazil orange essential oil.

In another embodiment of the present invention the composition comprises from 0.09 to 0.11 % of a benzoic acid (Ci-C ₅ ) linear or branched alkyl ester, in particular of ethyl benzoate.

In another embodiment of the present invention the composition comprises from 0.09 to 0.11 % of a cinnamic acid (C1-C3) linear or branched alkyl ester, in particular of methyl cinnamate.

In another embodiment of the present invention the composition comprises from 0.41 to 0.50% of benzyl butyrate.

In another embodiment of the present invention the composition comprises from 0.65 to 0.79% of a first butyric acid (CrCβ) linear or branched alkyl ester, in particular of isoamyl butyrate, and from 0.26 to 0.32% of a second butyric acid (CrCβ) linear or branched alkyl ester, in particular of ethyl butyrate.

In a particular embodiment of the present invention, the compositions essentially consist of propylene glycol, vanillin, gamma-nonalactone, an acetic acid (C ₄ -C ₅ ) linear or branched alkyl ester, an orange essential oil, a benzoic acid (Ci-C ₅ ) linear or branched alkyl ester, a cinnamic acid (C1-C3) linear or branched alkyl ester, benzyl butyrate, and one or two butyric acid (d-Cβ) linear or branched alkyl esters, the proportion of ingredients other than those indicated above being 0% or below 0.1 %. In these compositions, it is preferred if the balance to 100% is made up by propylene glycol. Given the above proportions of vanillin, gamma-nonalactone, acetic acid (C ₄ -C ₅ ) linear or branched alkyl ester, orange essential oil, benzoic acid (Ci-C ₅ ) linear or branched alkyl ester, cinnamic acid (C1-C3) linear or branched alkyl

ester, benzyl butyrate, and butyric acid (CrC ₆ ) linear or branched alkyl ester(s), these compositions comprise up to 86.9% or up to 81.8% of propylene glycol.

In a further particular embodiment of the present invention, the composition comprises 0.1 % to 10%, 0.1 % to 5%, 0.1 % to 2.5%, 0.1 % to 1 % or 0.1 % to 0.5% of one or more than one further ingredients. In these compositions too, it is preferred if the balance to 100% is made up by propylene glycol. Given the above proportions of vanillin, gamma-nonalactone, acetic acid (C ₄ -C ₅ ) linear or branched alkyl ester, orange essential oil, benzoic acid (Ci-C ₅ ) linear or branched alkyl ester, cinnamic acid (C1-C3) linear or branched alkyl ester, benzyl butyrate, and butyric acid (CrCβ) linear or branched alkyl ester(s), these compositions comprise up to 86.8% or up to 81.7% of propylene glycol.

The proportions indicated above (in %) refer to the total weight of the composition.

Another embodiment of the present invention relates to the use of the aforementioned compositions to increase piglet appetite.

In another embodiment of the present invention said compositions are used by adding them to feed at concentrations from 0.005 to 0.050%.

In another embodiment of the present invention said compositions are used preferably at concentrations from 0.015 to 0.035%.

The compositions can be prepared by mixing the ingredients following formulation procedures known by those skilled in the art.

The compositions of the present invention, when incorporated to feed in either liquid or solid (absorption on a solid base) form, increase the

attraction and appetite of the feed, familiarising the piglets with the feed, improving the adaptation of their digestive systems and satisfying their nutritional needs.

The compositions of the present invention facilitate the transition from liquid feed (sow's milk) to solid feed (foodstuffs) in pigstock breeding, since they improve the voluntary feed intake of the animals.

The following example is provided as an illustration for a better understanding of the invention.

ABBREVIATIONS

CU The amount of enzyme which liberates 0.128 micromoles of reducing sugars (glucose equivalents) from barley beta- glucan per minute at pH 4.5 and 3O ⁰ C

Dif Difference by weight in daily consumption

EPU The amount of enzyme which liberates 0.0083 micromoles of reducing sugars (xylose equivalents) from oat spelt xylan per minute at pH 4.7 and 3O ⁰ C

FYT The amount of enzyme that liberates 1 micro-mol of inorganic ortho-phosphate per minute from sodium phytate at pH 5.5 and 37°C.

df Degrees of freedom to be introduced in the Student's t-test statistical tables

pB-pA Percentage of the mean consumption of feed B minus the percentage of the mean consumption of feed A

Pore Difference as a proportion on total weight

Sig. (bilateral) .000 Significant test

t Student's t

Tm Tonne

CFU Number of colony-forming units

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 (Fig. 1 ) Mean feed consumption per piglet and day is represented in grams on the y-axis, such that the thick line expresses total consumption, the thin line marked by triangles expresses the mean consumption of feed A and the thin line marked by squares expresses the mean consumption of feed

B. The x-axis represents the number of days of life for the piglets.

Example: Test of feed consumption in piglets

The test was carried out in a farm with 280 reproductive sows that weans about 400 piglets per month. One of the delivery rooms with ten farrowing pens was used. The farrowing pens were exactly alike; the mother was in the centre of the farrowing pen in a piglet protection cage with a drinking trough and feeding trough and there were a drinking trough and two feeding troughs on the sides for the piglets.

10 multiparous Landrace x Large White mothers were used for the test.

The test started with 76 ten-day old piglets and finished with 73 piglets at 28 days.

Two-treatment design:

A. Flour-type feed with a standard composition (A, batch: 66569) consisting of aroma with touches of biscuit (milk, butter, vanilla)

B. Flour-type feed with a composition of the present invention (B), batch: 66044. The composition is detailed in Table 1.

Table 1. Composition of the present invention (B), batch: 66044

Both feedstuffs contained the same ingredients in the same proportion, except for the flavouring composition, which was different for each preparation, added at a proportion of 350 mg/kg of feed.

The feedstuffs were first administered when the piglets were 10 days old and they were maintained until they were 28 days weaning off old (weaning). The two feeding trough methodology was used. Each farrowing pen had 2 feeding troughs designed for piglets. The piglet feeding troughs were located at each side of the mother's protection cage and the positions

were alternated daily to prevent right or left bias effects. Table 2 shows feed ingredients and Table 3 shows their nutritional value.

Table 2. Feed ingredients

Table 3. Nutritional value of feeds with compositions A and B

Analytical components %

Moisture 8.40

Net Protein 19.20

Lysine 1.45

Net Cellulose 2.80

Net Fat 7.00

Net Ash 5.40

Piglet consumption controls were performed daily per farrowing pen, from day 10 to day 28 of life. Consumption was obtained from the disappearance of feed by the difference in weight between the initial and final amounts in the feeding trough after 24 hours. It must be taken into account that the total amount of feed that disappears is not equal to that consumed, since part of this is wasted; the part that is wasted is considered equal for each one of the two feeds.

The data were analysed by means of a multiple comparison of means test, comparing the hypothesis that the mean of the two samples is different. The samples were paired, such that for each sample A there is a sample B obtained under the same conditions, thus eliminating random effects that affected both treatments equally and reducing unexplained variance in the data. The percentage of the difference in consumption was defined as a variable to eliminate the effect of the different amounts of piglets in each yard or the different consumption by each piglet during the test. Consumption results were analysed in totals per day and per yard and day.

Table 4 shows the results for total consumptions per day for each feed in each of the 10 yards. The results show a greater preference towards the feed containing flavouring composition B.

Table 4. Results. Total daily consumption for each feed in the 10 yards

Tables 5 and 6 show the statistical study. The daily difference is significantly greater than zero both when expressed by weight of consumption and in percentage on total weight; we can thus assert that one

feed is preferred to the other. The mean of the daily differences is 12.58% with a confidence interval of 95%.

Table 5. Statistical study

N Mean Standard Deviation Standard Error of the Mean

Dif 19 0 .78589 0.445639 0.102237 Pore 19 0.12575 0.057544 0.013202

Table 6. Statistical study

Table 7 shows the results for the percentages of daily consumption for each yard. The variable studied was the percentage of consumption of each feed with respect to the total. The statistical study (Table 8) was significant.

Table 7. Results. Percentages of daily consumption per yard

Table 8. Statistical > study. Related sample test

Related differences

Standard 95% Confidence Bilateral

Mean Standard Error of interval for the t df Sig. Deviation the difference

Mean Lower Upper

| [1] 0.1 171965 0.2503898 0.181652 0.0813639 0.1530290 6.452 189 0.000

[1] pB-pA

Figure 1 (Fig.. 1 ) shows feed consumption according to the days of life of the animals.

The results of the test and the corresponding statistical study show that there is a significant difference, with a 95% confidence interval, in the difference of consumption between the piglets that preferred feed B (feed with a composition of the present invention) versus feed A (feed with a standard composition).

The greater consumption of feed indicates a faster development of the gastrointestinal mucosa and therefore a greater absorption of nutrients.