Response of protease supplementation on growth performance of weanling pigs

Abstract Text: A previous study demonstrated the efficacy of dietary supplementation of a protease (CIBENZA^® DP100; Novus International Inc., St Charles, MO) in reducing diet cost while maintaining growth performance in weanling pigs. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of DP100 on growth performance of nursery pigs under commercial conditions. A total of 968 pigs (initial BW: 6.5 kg; mixed gender) were allotted to 4 treatments in a complete randomized block design with 11 replicates (22 pigs/pen) per treatment. A positive (POS) and a negative (NEG) control diet were formulated. The POS diets were formulated to contain 1.32% and 1.19% SID Lys (phases 2 and 3, respectively). The NEG diets were formulated by subtracting the matrix value provided by supplementation of 500 ppm of DP100, from the POS. Two additional diets were formulated by supplementing NEG with 250 or 500 ppm of DP100 (NEG+250 or NEG+500, respectively). Pigs were fed the treatments in a two-phase program (Phase 2, d 7 to 21; Phase 3, d 21 to 42). Data were analyzed using the Mixed Procedure (SAS^® Institute, Cary, NC). During Phase 2, no differences were observed for ADG. The ADFI was lower (P < 0.05) for pigs fed the NEG (0.376 kg) and NEG+250 (0.383 kg) than for pigs fed POS diet (0.409 kg). As a result, feed efficiency was greater (P < 0.01) for pigs fed either the NEG or NEG+DP100 supplemented diets than pigs fed the POS diet. In phase 3, however, both ADG and FG were improved by supplementation of DP100 to the NEG. The ADG was not different between NEG+500 (0.480 kg) and POS (0.483 kg). Feed efficiency was not different among POS, NEG+250, and NEG+500. Overall, 500 ppm DP100 tended to improved ADG (P = 0.07; 0.399 and 0.402 kg, respectively) and ADFI (P = 0.06; 0.627 and 0.633 kg, respectively) to the same level of pigs fed the POS diet. Feed cost ($/kg BW gain) was reduced in the NEG+500 ($0.58) compared with the POS ($0.64). In conclusion, supplementation of weanling pig diets with 500 ppm of CIBENZA^® DP100 resulted in reduction of diet cost without detrimental effects on growth performance.

Keywords: growth performance, pigs, protease