A nutritional evaluation of diets containing meat meal for growing pigs. 2. The effect of level of meat meal or meat and bone meal in wheat-based diets

Abstract

Wheat based diets containing 10, 20, or 30 per cent of meat meal or meat and bone meal were fed at a daily rate of 3.5 per cent of liveweight to Large White pigs in the 40-160 lb liveweight range. Dry matter and organic matter digestibility and nitrogen retention were determined on pigs fed the meat and bone meal diets. Increasing the inclusion level of both meat meal and meat and bone meal from 10 to 20 per cent significantly increased the lean content of the ham and tended to improve daily gain and feed conversion. Including meat and bone meal at 30 per cent of the diet resulted in a significant depression of growth rate and feed conversion efficiency between 40 and 160 lb liveweight. Dry matter and organic matter digestibility of the diets containing meat and bone meal decreased as the level of meal increased. Nitrogen retention appeared to be greatest at the 20 per cent level.