A recent study presented at the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) Midwest Meeting 2024 delved into the intriguing theme of oat groats and their impact on nursery pig performance and digestive health. Many thanks to Dr. Amy Petry and her student Bre Pace from the University of Missouri for letting me use their presentation.
According to this presentation, nursery pigs face myriad challenges post-weaning, from adapting to solid diets to combating potential pathogens such as E. coli and Salmonella. Their immature immune and gastrointestinal systems render them particularly vulnerable to health issues, including post-weaning diarrhea. In the quest for solutions to these challenges, these researchers turned their attention to oat groats, intrigued by their purported ability to mitigate diarrhea incidence in young pigs, something that I can attest to from a commercial point of view.
