Abstract
The present study was conducted to evaluate and compare the effects of various animal and plant protein sources on piglet's performance, digestibility of amino acids and gut morphology in weaned pigs until 28 days after weaning. The plant protein sources used were soybean meal (SBM), fermented soy protein (FSP), rice protein concentrate (RPC); and animal protein sources tested were, whey protein concentrate (WPC) and fishmeal (FM). Iso-proteinous (21%) diets were formulated and lysine (1.55%) content was similar in all the diets. The level of each protein source added was 6% by replacing SBM to the same extent from the control diet containing 15% SBM. The ADG was higher (p<0.05) in the groups fed animal proteins as compared with plant proteins at all the levels of measurement, except during 15-28 days. The highest ADG was noted in WPC and FM fed diets and lowest in SBM fed diet. The feed intake was higher in animal protein fed groups than plant proteins at all phases, but the feed:gain ratio was not affected by protein sources except during overall (0 to 14 day) measurement which was improved (p<0.05) in animal protein fed diets compared to plant protein sources. The digestibilities of gross energy, dry matter and crude protein were higher in animal protein fed groups than for plant protein fed sources. The apparent ileal digestibilities of essential amino acids like Leu, Thr, and Met were significantly (p<0.05) higher in animal proteins fed animals as compared with plant protein fed animals. But the apparent fecal digestibilities of essential amino acids like Arg and Ile were significantly higher (p<0.05) in plant protein diets than animal protein sources. The villous structure studied by scanning electron microscope were prominent, straight finger-like, although shortened and densely located in FM fed group as compared with others. The lactic acid bacteria and C. perfringens counts were higher in caecal contents of pigs fed plant proteins than the animal proteins. Overall, it could be concluded that animal protein sources in the present study showed better effects on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and gut morphology than plant protein sources. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2005. Vol 18, No. 9 : 1285-1293)
Highlights
The availability, cost and the risk factors associated with diseases from animal protein sources make the nutritionist to think on alternative plant protein sources in weaned pigs diet
The CP content was higher in FM (70.0%) and the lowest in whey protein concentrate (WPC) (35.0%)
The analyzed amino acid composition for essential amino acid (EAA) is nearly similar to Mackerel fishmeal dried at 85°C used by Kim and Easter (2001) in their studies comparing
Summary
The availability, cost and the risk factors associated with diseases from animal protein sources make the nutritionist to think on alternative plant protein sources in weaned pigs diet. Plant protein sources are generally cheaper per unit of nutrient as compared with the animal protein sources. Plant protein supplements are lower in some essential amino acids, energy and minerals such as phosphorus as compared with animal protein supplements. Attempts have been made to replace milk products with alternative protein sources due to their inconsistent availability and high cost for piglet production. Fishmeal (FM) is widely used in the diets of young pigs as a relatively inexpensive source of readily digestible, high quality protein. Fishmeal is traditionally recognized as a very digestible protein with a high content of amino acids, vitamins and minerals (Kim and Easter, 2001). There is a dearth of information with respect to the YUN ET AL
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