233 Encapsulated Butyrate Supplementation Improved Growth Performance of Nursery Pigs without Added ZnO

Abstract

Abstract This study was to investigate the effects of supplementing encapsulated butyrate additives in nursery phase 1 and 2 diets with and without pharmacological levels of ZnO on growth performance of nursery pigs. Pigs (n = 720; ~21 d of age, 5.72 kg of BW) were assigned to 6 treatments (n = 12, 10 pigs/pen, mixed sex) in a randomized complete block design with initial BW as a block and fed for 42 days in 3 phases (d 0-9, d 10-21, and d 22-42, respectively). Treatments were: 1) Control, basal diet with 3,000 ppm of Zn in phase 1, 1,500 ppm of Zn in phase 2 and 125 ppm of Zn in phase 3 (i.e., pharmacological levels); 2) Control with GBM Performant (encapsulated butyrate additive with 63% butyric acid) at 0.475 kg/MT in phase 1 and 2 diets; 3) Control with GBM Performant at 0.75 kg/MT in phase 1 and 2 diets; 4) basal diet with GBM Performant at 0.475 kg/MT in phase 1 and 2 diets without pharmacological levels of ZnO; (5) basal diet with GBM Performant at 0.75 kg/MT in phase 1 and 2 diets without pharmacological levels of ZnO; (6) Control with Product A (encapsulated butyrate additive with 40% butyric acid) at 0.48 kg/MT, which provided equivalate dietary butyrate content as treatments 2 and 4. All phase 1 and phase 2 diets were added with antibiotics. Diets contained nutrients meeting or exceeding NRC requirements. Growth performance was measured for each phase. Data were analyzed using SAS v9.4 with pen serving as the experimental unit and differences considered significant at P ≤ 0.05. During phase 1, all GBM Performant treatments had greater (P < 0.01) ADG than Control or Product A treatment. The GBM Performant treatments also had greater ADFI (P = 0.04) and Gain:Feed (P = 0.07) than Product A treatment with Control being intermediate. Throughout the trial, GBM Performant treatment without pharmacological levels of ZnO showed greater ADG (P < 0.01) and ADFI (P < 0.01) than GBM Performant treatment with pharmacological levels of ZnO and the Control, whereas the Product A treatment showed the least ADG and ADFI. The GBM Performant treatment without pharmacological levels of ZnO tended to have greater overall Gain:Feed (P = 0.08) than other treatment groups. There was no significant difference on overall performance from the two supplementing dosage levels of GBM Performant. In conclusion, under the current trial condition, GBM Performant supplementation in phase 1 and 2 diets improved growth performance of nursery pigs than Control group without butyrate. When removing ZnO, GBM Performant treatment showed more benefits on performance compared with pigs supplemented with GBM Performant and pharmacological level of ZnO.