132 Investigating Potential Additive Effects of Formic Acid and Glycerol Monolaurate in Nursery Pig Diets

Abstract

Abstract A total of 350 pigs (DNA 200 × 400; initially 5.7 ± 0.06 kg BW) were used in a 42-d study with 5 pigs per pen and 14 replicate pens per treatment. At weaning, pigs were assigned to pens based on BW, and pens were allotted in a completely randomized design to dietary treatments: 1) negative control (basal diet with no additives); 2) basal diet with 3,000 ppm zinc oxide (ZnO) included in phase 1 and 2,000 ppm ZnO in phase 2; 3) basal diet with 0.7% formic acid (Amasil NA, BASF, Florham, NJ); 4) basal diet with 0.18% glycerol monolaurate (GML) (Natural Biologics GML, Natural Biologics, Newfield, NY); and 5) basal diet with a 1.0% blend of formic acid, sodium diformate, and GML (FORMI 3G, ADDCON GmbH, Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany). Pigs were fed treatment diets from d 0 to d 28. A common diet was fed from d 28 to d 42. From d 0 to d 7, pigs fed a diet containing ZnO or the 1.0% blend of formic acid, sodium diformate, and glycerol monolaurate had significantly increased (P = 0.03) ADG compared with pigs fed the control, with no impact (P > 0.05) on feed intake. Overall, pigs fed GML had reduced ADG compared with their counterparts fed the negative control, ZnO, or FORMI diets. Fecal DM was evaluated from d 7 to d 28 and there was a significant treatment × day interaction (P = 0.04). Pigs fed GML had significantly less fecal DM % on d 7, but a greater fecal DM % on d 14 and 21 when compared with pigs fed all other treatments. Fecal DM standardized across treatments by d 28. In summary, there is potential for a blend of formic acid, sodium diformate, and GML to improve growth performance immediately post-weaning without negatively impacting fecal consistency.