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Effects of an essential oils blend on growth performance of nursery pigs
Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of a proprietary blend of essential oils (CRINA® Piglets, DSM Nutritional Products, Parsippany, NJ) on growth performance of nursery pigs. A total of 96, 48, and 48 crossbred nursery pigs with initial BW of 6.62, 7.17, and 7.10 kg were used, respectively. Pigs were blocked by initial BW and sex before randomly allotted to 4 dietary treatments in each of the 3 experiments that were conducted for 35 days using 3 diet phases (7, 14, and 14 days). The dietary treatments were: 1) basal diets with no additive [CON]; 2) CON plus carbadox at 55 ppm [MEC]; 3) CON plus CRINA® Piglets at 200 ppm [CRI]; and 4) CON plus carbadox at 55 ppm and CRINA® Piglets at 200 ppm [MEC+CRI]. Basal diets were formulated to contain 3335, 3344, and 3329 kcal/kg ME, and 1.62, 1.51, and 1.41% total lysine, for the 3 phases, respectively. Data were checked for normality and pooled for statistical analysis. In total, 12 replicates (pens) were used per treatment, and no experiment×treatment interactions were detected (P > 0.26). The 35-d ADG was 493, 514, 510, and 495 g/d for diet 1 to 4, respectively (P = 0.25); the 35-d ADFI was 741, 757, 752, and 741 g/d, respectively (P = 0.80); and the 35-d G:F was 0.666, 0.680, 0.678, and 0.667, respectively (P = 0.55). The 35-d ADG response demonstrated a significant MEC×CRI interaction (P = 0.05), which indicated the numerical improvement of MEC and CRI might be negated by their combination. The response to both products decreased across the 3 diet phases. Compared to CON, MEC and CRI numerically increased ADG in Phase 1 by 10.43% and 12.27%, respectively (180 and 183 vs. 163 g/d); in Phase 2 by 6.28% and 3.14%, respectively (508 and 493 vs. 478 g/d); and in Phase 3 by 1.93% and 2.37%, respectively (687 and 690 vs. 674 g/d). Likewise, when comparing MEC and CRI to CON, the numerical differences in G:F were 12.40% and 4.75% in Phase 1, respectively (0.734 and 0.684 vs. 0.653); 3.00% and 0.46% in Phase 2, respectively (0.762 and 0.743 vs. 0.740); and -0.16% and 2.11% in Phase 3, respectively (0.624 and 0.639 vs. 0.625). In this study, CRI and MEC numerically improved the growth of nursery pigs in a similar manner, but the responses to each were not additive.
Keywords: essential oils, growth performance, nursery pigs