Effect of silicate on growth performance, meat quality and characteristics in finishing pigs

Abstract Text: The strategy of including various detoxifying clays in the diet has been given considerable attention in the scientific field. Dietary supplementation with different silicate clay such as zeolite, kaolin, bentonite, clinptilolite and biolite improves growth performance. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of silicate supplementation on growth performance, meat quality and meat palatability in finishing pigs. Fifty six pigs [(Landrace x Yorksire) x Duroc] with average body weight of 94.20 ± 1.28 kg were used in a 30d feeding study. Dietary treatments included (1) CON (basal diet), 2) TRT (basal diet + 0.3% silicate). Silicate was added to the control diet at the expense of ground corn and all diets contained sufficient amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Pigs fed with diet supplemented with 0.03 % silicate had increased meat color compared with their control counterparts. All data were subjected to the GLM procedures of SAS (1996) and differences among treatments were separated by Duncan’s multiple range test. The variability in the data was expressed as standard error (SE). Probability values less than 0.05 were considered significant. No significant difference was observed on meat quality except the meat color (a*, b*) was increased (p<0.05) by silicate supplementation. Dietary feeding of silicate showed a significant effect (p<0.05) on palatability compared to their controls. Taste, Aroma, tenderness and juiciness had no significant effect. Supplementation of finishing pigs with 0.3% of silicate did not find any significant response in fatty acid profiles of longissimus muscle. When a diet containing silicate was fed to the finishing pigs, it significantly affects overall meat color a*, b*) and palatability of meat.

Keywords: silicate, meat quality, growth performance