Evaluation of fermented whole crop wheat and barley feeding on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, faecal volatile fatty acid emission, blood constituents, and faecal microbiota in growing pigs

C.H Lee,S.J Park,J.H Cho,J.H Lee,T.H Song,W Yun,T.I Park,W.G Kwak,S.Y Oh

doi:10.4314/sajas.v47i4.15

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effects of feeding diets with fermented whole crop wheat (FWW) and fermented whole crop barley (FWB) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood constituents, faecal volatile fatty acid (VFA) emission and faecal microbiota in growing pigs. A total of 200 growing pigs were randomly allotted to five treatments with eight replicates per treatment and five pigs per replicate. Dietary treatments consisted of i) CON (basal diet), ii) 0.5% FWW (CON + 0.5% fermented whole crop wheat), iii) 1.0% FWW (CON + 1.0% fermented whole crop wheat), iv) 0.5% FWB (CON + 0.5% fermented whole crop barley), and v) 1.0% FWB (CON + 1.0% fermented whole crop barley). The digestibility of total dietary fibre was significantly higher in pigs fed FWW diets. The faecal emissions of VFA of pigs fed the fermented treatments was increased significantly compared with CON. Concentrations of cortisol and triglyceride in blood of pigs fed 1.0% FWW were significantly lower than pigs fed CON diets. The pigs fed 1.0% FWB diets had a significantly decreased level of total cholesterol in blood compared with CON. In conclusion, the current results indicated that diets supplemented with FWW and FWB could increase faecal VFA emission and reduce concentration of triglyceride and cortisol, while 0.5% and 1.0% FWW had no negative effects on growth performance, and could increase digestibility of dietary fibre in growing pigs. Keywords: Dietary fibre, faecal short-chain fatty acid emissions, fermented feed, serum parameter, swine

Highlights

Because of the ban on the use of antibiotics in feed as a growth promoter in Europe, research on alternative antibiotic drugs is needed
The digestibility of nutrients is affected when pigs are fed dietary fibre, which is the sum of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) and lignin (Knudsen & Hansen, 1991)
The dietary treatments consisted of i) CON, ii) 0.5% FWW (CON + 0.5% fermented whole crop wheat), iii) 1.0% FWW (CON + 1.0% fermented whole crop wheat), iv) 0.5% FWB (CON + 0.5% fermented whole crop barley), and v) 1.0% FWB (CON + 1.0% fermented whole crop barley)

Summary

Introduction

Because of the ban on the use of antibiotics in feed as a growth promoter in Europe, research on alternative antibiotic drugs is needed. Wheat and barley are produced in large quantities and account for a large proportion of winter crops. The whole crop cereal has high fibre content and may be poorly available for pig digestion. The digestibility of nutrients is affected when pigs are fed dietary fibre, which is the sum of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) and lignin (Knudsen & Hansen, 1991). Owing to the lack of endogenous enzymes for its digestion, the fibre component of a diet is fermented through microbial degradation in the cecum and colon. In the process, there could be pronounced negative effects on the utilization of other components

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