Abstract
A total of 344 weaned pigs (21 ± 2 d of age) were used at University of Arkansas (UA, n = 2 16) and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, n = 128) to evaluate increasing level of sodium butyrate (SB) on growth performance and complete blood cell count. Pigs at each facility were blocked by initial BW and randomly allotted to 1 of 4 dietary treatments with 9 replications/diet and 6 pigs/pen at UA; and 8 replications/diet and 4 pigs/pen at UIUC. Treatments included a control corn-soybean-meal based diet and 3 diets in which 0.05, 0.10, or 0.15% SB was added to the control diet. Feed was manufactured at each facility. Pigs were fed in 3 phases: 7 d, 14 d, and 14 d at UIUC and 7 d, 14 d, and 19 d at UA for phase 1, 2, and 3, respectively. At UA, blood was collected at the beginning of the experiment and at the end of each phase to determine complete blood cell count. Data for growth performance for both facilities were pooled and analysed as a RCBD using the Mixed procedure of SAS. Treatment was the fixed effect, and facility and facility by treatment interactions were random effects. Orthogonal contrasts were used to assess linear and quadratic responses to inclusion of increasing levels of SB in diets. Increasing dietary SB increased weight gain (quadratic, P < 0.05), ADFI (quadratic, P ≤ 0.05), and final BW (quadratic, P < 0.05). Total white blood cell and eosinophil cell count tended to increase with increasing SB (quadratic, P = 0.07 and P = 0.08, respectively). The lymphocyte cell count tended to decrease (linear, P = 0.09) with increasing SB. Results indicated that feeding SB during the nursery phase tended to alter blood cell count and improve growth performance.