Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of protected organic acid blends on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and faecal micro flora in growing pigs. A total of 100 crossed [(Landrace × Yorkshire) × Duroc] with an initial body weight (BW) of 23.4 ± 1.27 kg were used in a six-week trial. Pigs were randomly allocated into one of four treatments (five replications with five pigs per pen) in a randomly complete block design based on their BW. Treatments consisted of CON, basal diet; MC1, basal diet + protected organic acid 0.1%; MC2, basal diet + protected organic acid 0.2%; MC3, basal diet + protected organic acid 0.4%. BW and feed intake were measured initially and at the end of six weeks to determine average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and gain/feed. The digestibility of nutrients and faecal micro flora was also assessed at the end of the experiment. The pigs fed MC2 diet showed greater ADG and G:F than pigs fed the control diet. Linear effects for ADG (linear, P = 0.04) as well as G: F (linear, P = 0.03) were observed. Dietary supplementation with 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.4% protected organic acid did not affect dry matter, N and energy digestibility. Supplementation of 0.2% protected organic acid increased (P < 0.05) faecal Lactobacillus population counts (linear, P = 0.01). Our result suggests that protected organic acid has the potential to enhance growth performance and improve microbial population in growing pigs.
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