Impact of nutritional strategies on water productivity indicators for pigs

Abstract

The productivity of water is a poorly considered indicator in animal agriculture. This is because water is a resource still believed by persons in the production network to be abundant and of good quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of nutritional strategies in water productivity indicators for growing and slaughtering pigs. Five strategies were evaluated: control diet (T1), with a reduction in the level of crude protein (T2), phytase (T3), organic minerals (T4) and the three nutritional strategies combined (T5). The water productivity indicator is defined as the quantity of product by water used. The following indicators were calculated: total weight (kg L-1), cold carcass (kg L-1) lean carcass (L kg-1), and nutrition (kcal L-1). T5 showed the best productivities for each liter of water used. The total weight productivity in this treatment was 3.0 kg L-1, while in T1 was 2.5 kg L-1. T3 had the lowest productivities. The nutritional water productivities were 2,512, 2,763, 2,657, 2,814, and 3,039 kcal L-1, respectively for T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5. Nutritional strategies reduce the use of drinking water and therefore improve water productivities. The best productivities were observed when combining the strategies.