Effect of Prebiotic, Fatty Acid and Copper and Zinc Ingredients on Nursery Pig Performance

In the absence of sub-therapeutic antibiotic use for performance benefits, the swine industry is looking for nutritional feed additives to enhance nursery pig performance. The study objective was to evaluate performance and energy digestibility of 3 nutritional alternatives to sub-therapeutic antibiotics in a growth performance and digestibility assay. Three-hundred weaned pigs (initial BW 6.36 ± 0.85 kg) of adequate health status were allotted by sex and BW to 60 pens (5 pigs/pen) that were randomly assigned across 6 dietary treatments: 1) Control (NC), 2) Control + chlortetracycline (40 g/ton) and tiamulin (35 g/ton; PC), 3) Control + soluble corn fiber (SCF), 4) Control + 0.3% FA mix (FA), 5) Control + ZnO (2,000 mg/kg) + CuCl (200 mg/kg; ZnCu), and 6) Control + 5% resistant corn starch (RCS). Pigs were fed their respective diet in 2-phases, each lasting 14-d, and ADG, ADFI, and G:F were calculated over the 28 d period. Thereafter, 48 barrows (n=8/treatment, BW = 12.75 ± 1.04 kg) were moved into individual metabolism crates for a 3 d adaption followed by a 3 d total collection of feces and urine to calculate energy digestibility. Data were analyzed using the MIXED procedure of SAS with a fixed effect of diet. Contrast statements were used to compare all diets to NC. Overall, ADG and final BW did not differ (P > 0.10) between NC and all other diets. The ADFI of NC pigs did not differ (P > 0.10) from pigs fed PC, SCF, FA, or RCS diets, but was greater than ADFI of ZnCU fed pigs (0.397 vs. 0.441 kg/d, P = 0.05). G:F between NC pigs and pigs fed FA and ZnCu diets did not differ (P > 0.10), but NC pigs had improved G:F compared to PC pigs (0.703 vs 0.665, P = 0.014), SCF pigs (0.631, P < 0.0001), and RCS pigs (0.668, P = 0.021). Overall, there were no differences in change in BW between the NC pigs and all other diets when pigs were in metabolism crates (P > 0.20) or in digestible energy coefficients (P > 0.40). In conclusion, in a high-health status nursery, sub-therapeutic antibiotics, prebiotics, fatty acid and zinc ingredients did not affect growth, feed efficiency, or digestibility.