Effects of dietary hydrolyzed porcine intestinal mucosa on growth performance are mainly pronounced during the first week post-weaning in nursery pigs

Abstract

The objective was to determine the effects of supplementing hydrolyzed porcine intestinal mucosa (HPM) on growth performance and fecal score in nursery pigs. A total of 144 barrows (28 d of age and 6.5 ± 0.8 kg body weight) were randomly assigned to one of 3 dietary treatments in a randomized complete block design with 6 replicates for a 28-d feeding trial. The diets consisted of corn-soybean meal-whey-based diets with 0, 2, and 4% HPM (505 g/kg of crude protein and 16.5 MJ/kg of gross energy, as-fed basis) replacing soybean meal. Body weight and feed intake were recorded on d 7, 14, and 28 to calculate average daily gain, average daily feed intake, and gain-to-feed ratio (G:F). Fecal score was recorded daily to categorize piglet fecal consistency. From d 0 to 7, G:F was linearly increased (P = 0.026) with increasing dietary HPM. However, no linear or quadratic effect of dietary HPM on growth performance in nursery pigs was observed during any other experimental period. Feces of pigs fed the 4% HPM diet were harder (P = 0.064) than those fed the 0 and 2% HPM diets from d 7 to 14, but no difference was observed between the experimental diets during the other experimental period. In conclusion, the effects of dietary HPM on G:F and fecal score are mainly pronounced during the first week after weaning and the second week after weaning, respectively.