Effects of Dietary Supplementation of Natural Feed Additives on Growth Performance of Nursery Pigs

The present experiment investigates the effects of two natural feed additives (Biotronic^® Top3 [OA] – a blend of formic, propionic, and acetic acids combined with cinnamaldehyde and permeabilizing complex, and Digestarom^® P.E.P. [EO] – a phytogenic blend of oregano, anise, and citrus oil, and fructooligosaccharide) on growth performance of nursery pigs. Weaning pigs (PIC 280 x 1050; n = 360; BW = 6.22 ± 1.4 kg; 22 d) were allotted 10 pigs per pen, for a total of 36 pens and pens were assigned within weight blocks to one of the three dietary treatments (12 pens/diet). The dietary treatments were, 1) basal diet [NC]; 2) NC + 0.1% OA; 3) NC + 0.1% OA + 0.0125% of EO [OA+EO]. Experimental diets were provided in two phases (phase 1, 0 – 8 d and phase 2, 8 – 22 d post-weaning). Diets were corn-soybean meal-dry whey based and formulated to contain 4.35 and 4.10 g SID lysine/MCal ME for phase 1 and 2, respectively. Diets did not contain in-feed antibiotics. Body weight and feed disappearance were measured weekly. Least squared means were analyzed using t-test. For the 22 d period, supplementation of OA+EO, compared to the NC, increased final BW (10.53 vs. 10.85 kg, P = 0.012) and G:F (0.722 vs. 0.775 g/g, P = 0.015), tended to increase ADG (193 vs. 210 g/d, P = 0.062) and did not affect ADFI (272 vs. 267 g/d, P = 0.341). For the 22 d period, supplementation of OA did not affect BW (10.76 kg, P ≤ 0.135), ADG (0.202 g/d, P ≤ 0.135), ADFI (0.273 g/d, P ≤ 0.393), and G:F (0.273 g/g, P ≤ 0.097) compared to OA+EO and NC. Overall the supplementation of OA in combination of EO improved nursery pig performance. Biotronic^® Top3 and Digestarom^® P.E.P. provided a viable natural alternative to promote growth and feed efficiency in nursery pigs.