Enzyme supplementation of wheat, barley or sugar beet pulp based diets for early weaned piglets: effects on performance and faecal nutrient digestibility

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine if enzyme supplementation could improve the performance of early weaned piglets by increasing nutrient digestibility of diets in which energy content was reduced by replacing wheat with barley or sugar beet pulp.The following diets were supplemented with (+) and without (-) stabilised multi-enzyme premixes (E1, E2 and E3 respectively): diet W containing 706g/kg wheat and formulated to supply 14 MJ DE/kg, diets B and SBP in which DE was reduced to 13.25 MJ/kg by completely replacing wheat with barley or 185g/kg sugar beet pulp respectively. All diets were formulated to provide 150g/kg of apparent ileally digestible ideal protein, giving a crude protein concentration of about 217g/kg. Soya bean (200g/kg) and fish meal (75g/kg) were added at equal levels to all diets. Main enzyme activities in E1 were xylanase (T . longibrachiatum), amylase (B. subtilis) and pectinase (A. niger), in E2 beta-glucanase (T. longibrachiatum), xylanase (T. longibrachiatum) and amylase (B.subtilis) and in E3 beta-glucanase (T. longibrachiatum), amylase (B. subtilis) and pectinase (A. niger). The feeds were pelleted (3mm).