Axcelera-P is AB Neo’s first product in the new accelerator category, proven to switch on lifetime performance in neonates. It’s the company’s first accelerator for pigs, where each piglet typically only consumes up to 200g from day four and through the first few weeks resulting in finishing pigs heavier or earlier.
Accelerators are products that when delivered to the gut in neonates, are proven to take animal performance to a higher trajectory than could be achieved using conventional best practice. As a result, they accelerate the performance of animals above their peers.
A combination of academic (Leeds University and Harper Adams University) and commercial trials have proven the concept of Axcelera-P. The data show that there are three fundamental benefits: an improvement in lifetime performance, reaching slaughter four days earlier or 4kg heavier; reduced pre-weaning mortality, particularly effective with hyperprolific sows; and improved uniformity of pigs at weaning.
AB Neo’s Paul Toplis says it’s best not to think of accelerators in terms of offering a better feed or a new diet.
“That’s what makes them such a breakthrough,” he adds, “accelerators such as Axcelera-P have non-feed features in how they perform and are produced. They use a proprietary formulation and a new production technology to activate specific ingredients that create a novel effect whose performance is greater than the parts.”
With accelerators, pre-weaning feed intake is no longer the measure, it’s about switching on and preparing the gut. The animal’s gut is the delivery organ for feed efficiency and for a lean, fast growing animal. Accelerators act by turning on the gut as the delivery system.
One particular feature of accelerators is that little effect is seen until after the weaning phase, after which the performance is accelerated throughout the animal’s whole life. This may involve turning genes on or off to directly improve transporter systems or through the changed microbiota to open up high-performing metabolic pathways. It’s as though the switch has been turned on to boost post-weaning and lifetime performance.
For more information visit: www.ab-neo.com