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Influence of pineapple byproduct in nursery pig performance
High fiber feedstuffs can promote gut health in piglets and may be an interesting tool to improve the animal growth. This study evaluated the performance of nursery pigs fed a control diet or one of 3 diets with increasing levels (3.4; 6.8; 10.3%) of pineapple byproduct (90,7% DM, 67.5% total dietary fiber, 7.08% CP, 3,951 kcal of GE/kg, as-fed basis). Growth performance [ADG, ADFI, and feed conversion ratio (FCR)] was evaluated from weaning (d 0) to d 14 (phase 1), from d 15 to d 30 (phase 2), and from d 31 to d 45. Fifty six pigs (5.05 ± 0.89 kg) were housed 2 per pen in phase 1 and 28 pigs, one per pen, in phases 2 and 3, with free access to feed and water. Diets were composed by corn, soybean meal, dairy products, spray dried blood plasma, supplemented with minerals, vitamins and AA. The pineapple byproduct was added to the diets at the expense of corn. In phases 1, 2, and 3 the diets provided, at least, 3,400, 3,375, and 3,230 kcal of ME/kg; 220, 215, and 190 g/kg of CP; 14.5, 13.3, and 10.9 g/kg of digestible lysine; presented from 7.7 to 16.0, 9.2 to 15.3, and 9.4 to 19.0% of total dietary fiber, respectively. A complete randomized block design according with the animals weight was adopted, the pen was considered the experimental unit. Results were submitted to ANOVA, regression analysis, and the control diet was compared to each of the 3 pineapple byproducts diets by Dunnett test, from d 0 to d 14 (period 1), from d 0 to d 30 (period 2), and from d 0 to d 45 (period 3). The ADG, ADFI, and FCR of pigs in period 1, ADG and FCR in period 2, and ADFI and FCR in phase 3 were similar (P>0.05). Increasing dietary inclusion of pineapple byproduct linearly increased (P<0.05) ADFI from d 0 to 30, in 44.1% (390 vs 562 g). From d 0 to d 45, the ADG of the pigs presented a quadratic (P<0.05) response, and pigs fed diet with 3.4% of pineapple byproduct had a 50.15% higher ADG (P<0.05) than the animals submitted to the control diet (509 vs 339 g). Feeding nursery pigs with a low inclusion of a high fiber feedstuff, as pineapple byproduct in 3.4% of the diet, is an interesting strategy to improve the ADG of pigs.
Keywords: growth performance, insoluble fiber, piglets