5: Animal nutrition and immunity in pigs and poultry

Abstract

The current level of intensity of modern pig and poultry production systems and the continuously increasing production efficiency requires an optimum development and functioning of the immune system. Sub-optimal development will result in increased use of antibiotics, increased welfare related problems, increased costs and a decrease in production efficiency. A better understanding of the developing immune system and the influence that husbandry conditions, including feed practices, during gestation and just after birth have on the developing immune system can lead to systems that produce more resilient animals, with increased immune competence that are better able to cope with their environmental challenges. A better understanding of the common mucosal immune system in the gut and airways and the way this is influenced by feeding strategies, is therefore implicated. Novel interdisciplinary research programs, integrating fields like animal nutrition, mucosal immunology, transgenerational development of immune competence, and husbandry conditions are, therefore, urgently needed. This contribution highlights some of these recent developments in these fields.