Controlling the microbiological quality of feed is essential in any animal production system, even more when it comes to breeding pig farms, due to the possibility of transmitting these pathogens to new litters, which affect the productive capacity of farms. It is noteworthy that during this productive phase, animals are more sensitive to any challenge, including microbiological ones.

Organic acids are one of the most used preservatives in animal feed, however, their bacteriostatic and fungistatic effect has a limited activity that lasts about two months.

The cimenol ring is a botanical preservative with proven bactericidal and fungicidal activity that remains active until 6 months after application. The cimenol ring has a wide spectrum of action, being effective against bacteria, fungi, and yeasts.

Objective

To evaluate the effect of the cimenol ring on the presence of pathogenic microorganisms in sow feed during gestation, compared to organic acids.

Materials and methods

The trial was conducted in a breeding sow farm, where animals were distributed into the following experimental groups:

• Control: standard basal diet without preservatives.
• Organic acids: standard basal diet with organic acids administered at doses of 5 kg per ton of feed.
• Cimenol ring: standard basal diet with cimenol ring at doses of 1 kg per ton of feed.

To assess the microbiological contamination in the different feeds, samples were taken in three different periods and sent to the laboratory for the analysis of the total bacterial count:

• Sample 1. From the silo, after the addition of the different preservatives.
• Sample 2. From the beginning of gestation.
• Sample 3. From the end of gestation.

Results

The first feed sample was taken from the feed silo after applying both preservative products. Total bacterial counts were 9.8 x 10⁸ CFU in the control group, 8.2 x 10⁸ CFU in the organic acid group and 1.9 x 10⁵ CFUs in the cimenol ring group, meaning a reduction in microbial load of 16% with the use of organic acids and 99.98% with the use of the cimenol ring.

The second sampling was carried out at the beginning of gestation. With organic acids, the total bacterial count slightly increased compared to the control group, which can be associated either with a loss of efficacy of the organic acids, or with differences associated with sampling. On this occasion, it was observed that the feed supplemented with cimenol ring obtained a lower microbiological count compared to the rest of the experimental groups, with a difference above 99%.

The last sampling was carried out at the end of gestation, where a reduction in the total bacterial count was observed in the groups supplemented with preservatives. In the group with organic acids, this reduction was 94%, while, in the group with the cimenol ring, the reduction was greater than 99%.

Conclusion

Ensuring the microbiological quality of the feed supplied to sows during gestation is essential, since this is one of the main routes of entry of pathogens capable of affecting sows’ reproductive performance and piglets’ viability.

The cimenol ring is a natural preservative, which has proven to have a superior efficacy to that of organic acids, as it controls microbial growth in the feed from the moment of its application and throughout the gestation period of the sows.

In addition, the cimenol ring has an effective preservative effect, even at doses that are five times lower than those of organic acids.

Since it is a natural product, the cimenol ring leaves no residue on animals and is totally safe for the workers and the machinery.

The cimenol ring is marketed under the name of Alquermold Natural by Biovet S.A.