Effects of Conditioners (Standard, Long-Term and Expander) on Pellet Quality and Growth Performance in Nursery and Finishing Pigs

Abstract This study was conducted at a commercial research facility and utilized 1,092 finishing pigs (PIC® 337 × Camborough®) in a RCBD with 3 dietary treatments to determine the effects of commercially available phytogenic feed additives on growth performance traits in finishing swine for the last 35 d prior to marketing. The dietary treatments were as follows: 1) Control; 2) Aromex Pro® (AP; Delacon) fed at 0.01%; and 3) Ambitine® (AM; PMI) fed at 0.1%. Pens with 13 pigs/pen and 0.66 m2/pig were randomly allotted to treatments on the basis of live weight and gender. Pigs had ad libitum access to corn-soy diets that met or exceeded the pig’s requirements (NRC, 2012). Aromex Pro® and Ambitine® were added to the diets at the expense of corn. Dietary treatments started on day 0 (BW = 97.7 kg; SEM = 1.04) and were fed throughout the 35 d trial period. On d 21, the two heaviest pigs per pen were marketed, while the remaining pigs in each pen were marketed on d 35. Pigs and feeders were weighed on d 0, 21, and 35. Data were analyzed by using PROC MIXED of SAS® version 9.4, and pen was the experimental unit. The model included the fixed effect of treatment and random effect of replicate. Pre-planned orthogonal contrasts were used to compare AP vs. Control and AM vs. Control. Feeding AP or AM for the last 35 d in finishing both improved (P < 0.05) ADG by 4%, ADFI by 3% and final BW by 1.6 kg over Control, but did not change feed to gain or mortality. These data demonstrate that phytogenic feed additives can improve growth performance traits in finishing swine.

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Dietary replacement of fish meal by defatted and fermented soybean meals with taurine supplementation for pompano fish: effects on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and biological parameters in a long-term feeding period

Journal of Animal Science ◽

10.1093/jas/skaa367 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 98 (12) ◽

Author(s):

Hung Phuc Nguyen ◽

Thinh Van Do ◽

Hau Duc Tran

Keyword(s):

Growth Performance ◽

Soybean Meal ◽

Fish Meal ◽

Basal Diet ◽

Nutrient Digestibility ◽

Biological Parameters ◽

Feeding Period ◽

Taurine Supplementation ◽

Fermented Soybean

Abstract A 16-wk growth trial was conducted to examine the effects of dietary replacement of fish meal by defatted soybean meal (SBM) and fermented soybean meal (FSBM) with taurine supplementation on growth performance, nutrient apparent digestibility coefficient (ADC) and biological parameters of pompano fish. The FSBM was produced by fermenting SBM with Lactobacillus spp. Seven isonitrogenous and isoenergetic diets were formulated to replace 35% or 50% of fish meal by SBM or FSBM with taurine supplementation. The diets are denoted as follows: FM, SBM35, SBM35T, FSBM35T, SBM50, SBM50T, and FSBM50T. The FM (the basal diet) contained fish meal as a main source of dietary protein. Taurine was supplemented to SBM35T, FSBM35T, SBM50T, and FSBM50T at the level of 15 g/kg diet. Pompano juveniles with an initial body weight (BW) of 80 g reared in floating net cages were fed the experimental diets twice daily for 16 wk. Results showed that the final BW, weight gain, and feed conversion ratio of fish fed SBM35 and SBM50 were significantly lower than those of fish fed FM (P < 0.05), indicating that the replacement of fish meal by SBM at the rate of 35% in the diet is excessive for pompano. Supplementation of taurine to the SBM-included diets significantly increased growth performance and feed utilization (P < 0.05); however, these diets did not restore the performance back to a level equivalent to that of fish offered the basal diet. Meanwhile, fish fed FSBM35T had comparable growth and feed performances to those fed FM. Hematocrit values, total biliary bile acid levels, whole body lipid contents, and tissue taurine concentrations of fish fed SBM35 and SBM50 were the lowest among the treatments, but these parameters were improved by taurine supplementation and FSBM inclusion in the diet. Taurine supplementation increased lipid ADC, and SBM fermentation slightly enhanced both lipid and protein ADCs of the fish. These findings suggest that the combination of FSBM and taurine supplementation is an effective way to improve growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and biological parameters, and that FSBM with taurine supplementation can replace 35% of fish meal in pompano diets without any negative effects on growth and feed performances in a long-term feeding period.

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