B-Act®: A New Technical Bulletin In Challenging Diets
Dennis SmuldersThe post-weaning period often coincides with nutritional pressure, particularly when diets are formulated with reduced protein levels or only contain limited quantities of high-quality ingredients. Under these conditions, piglets are more susceptible to digestive disturbances, reduced feed intake, and growth checks, which can have lasting consequences on lifetime performance.
B-Act® is a probiotic feed additive based on a unique spore-forming strain of Bacillus licheniformis (DSMZ 28710). Thanks to its spore form, B-Act® is highly stable during feed processing and pelleting and survives passage through the acidic upper gastrointestinal tract. Once in the intestine, the spores rapidly germinate and exert a multifactorial mode of action, including competitive exclusion of undesirable bacteria and production of antimicrobial peptides such as lichenicidin, supporting a balanced and resilient gut.
A new technical bulletin (TB12 - link below) evaluates the performance of B-Act® in post-weaning piglets fed low-quality diets under commercially relevant conditions. In this study, the piglets that received a nutritionally challenged diet supplemented with 0.5 kg B-Act®/ton of feed showed significantly higher body weight at 12 and 21 days post-weaning compared to the negative control group (Figure 1). In addition, B-Act® supplementation increased average daily feed intake by approximately 40 g per piglet during the first 40 days post-weaning, while also contributing to improved gut health, as reflected by lower diarrhoea scores (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Weight at weaning (day 25) and at 37, 46 and 65 days of age. The positive control (PC) group received a standard feed including live yeast, haemoglobin, plasma powder, fishmeal and whey powder. All other groups were fed a lower protein level diet, no live yeast, no haemoglobin, no plasma powder, no fishmeal and no whey powder. Diet composition is available on request. Different letters mean a significant difference at p<0.05.
Figure 2. Diarrhoea scoring at day 37 (12 days post weaning). Different letters mean a significant difference at p<0.05.
Importantly, these improvements were achieved without changes in feed conversion, demonstrating that B-Act® helps piglets cope more effectively with dietary stress by stabilising gut function rather than simply stimulating intake.
The results confirm that B-Act® is a reliable probiotic solution to safeguard performance and health when diet quality is compromised, a situation increasingly encountered in modern swine production systems.
Together with its proven stability, compatibility with other feed additives, and applicability across production stages, B-Act® represents a practical tool to support piglets through nutritional challenges during and after weaning.