Stress, ingredient quality and pathogens constantly challenge swine health and performance. These challenges can take a bite out of your financial performance, too.

A multi-faceted solution gives you options to protect pigs and your bottom line. Activated medium-chain fatty acids can address multiple challenges to keep pigs performing despite potential barriers. MCFAs play different roles in swine nutrition.

Activated MCFAs can work in feed before consumption to support biosecurity protocols and minimize the pathogen load pigs face. They continue working inside the pig to provide consistent, broad-spectrum support for swine gut health. Healthy pigs can help decrease the economic impact of disease challenges.

This multi-faceted support is important because we don't always know what pigs or feed might have been exposed to during transport. MCFAs can help minimize the risk.

What are MCFAs?

MCFAs are fatty acids with six, eight, 10 or 12 carbon atoms. But not all MCFAs are the same.

MCFAs can be found in various forms and lengths, and each works differently. They can weaken certain types of bacteria or viruses, which makes them valuable as a feed additive.

One form is activated MCFAs; they are freely available to work instantly. Other sources of MCFAs, including triglycerides or salts, must be broken apart before the MCFAs are activated.

Why MCFA form matters

Activated MCFAs are not bound to other molecules and can work immediately to protect pigs without spending dietary energy to break the bonds. MCFAs that are not activated require dietary energy and are less efficient than activated MCFAs. For example:

Putting activated MCFAs to work

Different pathogens are susceptible to different lengths of MCFAs. Feeding a strategic combination of lengths (six, eight, 10 or 12 carbon atoms), provides broad-spectrum support to the pig.

Feeding a single MCFA may work against some challenges, but a strategic blend supports optimal and consistent results.

Strategic blends of activated MCFAs can be fed at lower inclusion rates compared to MCFAs in other forms. These specific combinations could optimize formulation of the ration or potentially lower costs by providing efficiencies in product procurement.

Ultimately, your task is to choose the right blend of MCFAs to address your operation's needs — whether that is responding to an enteric challenge, managing disease risk in feed or supporting operational biosecurity.

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