Effects of Sulfur-Containing Preservative Blends or Sodium Metabisulfite with or without a Yeast Derivative on Nursery Pig Performance When Challenged with Diets Containing Elevated Level of Deoxynivalenol

Deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination of swine diets can reduce growth performance. This study evaluated the effects of sulfur-containing preservative blends (Defusion^® and Defusion^® Prime; Provimi, Brookville, OH) or sodium metabisulfite with or without a yeast derivative on growth performance of nursery pigs fed diets containing corn and corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) which contained elevated levels of DON. The study utilized 1,822 pigs (40-42 d of age; 12.5 ± 0.4 kg), 12 pens/treatment, and 23 pigs/pen. Two barns were blocked separately by starting BW and randomly allocated to treatments. Treatments were arranged as a 2 × 3 factorial utilizing diets containing DON contaminated corn and DDGS (QC; complete diet average ~3.2 ppm DON) with the following factors: 1) 0.25% sodium metabisulfite (SMBS) vs. 0.25% Defusion vs. 0.25% Defusion Prime and 2) no yeast derivative (YD) vs. 0.1% YD. Additionally, a clean control with no additives (PC; complete diet average ~1.1 DON) was included. Pen weights were obtained on d 0 and d 18, mortalities and removals were tracked, and growth performance parameters were calculated. Return over feed cost (ROFC) was calculated assuming $2.20 per kg of gain. Orthogonal contrasts were constructed as follows: PC vs QC + SMBS, main effects for SMBS vs. Defusion products (DP; Defusion and Defusion Prime), Defusion vs Defusion Prime, no YD vs. YD, and all possible interactions. Data were analyzed using PROC GLIMMIX in SAS 9.3 (SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC). The PC treatment had greater ADG, ADFI, final BW, G:F, and ROFC compared to pigs fed QC + SMBS (P < 0.010). Compared to SMBS, the addition of DP without YD improved G:F, but did not impact G:F in diets with YD (Interaction effect, P < 0.010). Inclusion of DP increased ADG, ADFI, G:F, final BW, and ROFC compared to SMBS (P < 0.010). The probability of mortalities and removals occurring was reduced (P < 0.050) for DP compared to pigs fed SMBS. Defusion Prime increased ADG, final BW, and ROFC compared to pigs fed Defusion (P < 0.050). Gain to feed was not further improved with the addition of Defusion Prime compared to Defusion (P > 0.100). Inclusion of YD improved ADG, G:F, and ROFC (P < 0.010), but did not improve ADFI (P > 0.100). In QC diets, Defusion products were more effective than SMBS in alleviating some negative performance effects, and performance was superior for Defusion Prime compared to Defusion.