PSIV-12 Dietary Supplementation of a Botanical Blend Improved Growth Performance and Reduced Diarrhea Incidence in Commercially Housed Weaned Pigs

Abstract

Abstract The study evaluated the effects of dietary botanical supplementation on the growth performance and diarrhea incidence of commercially housed weaned piglets. The study design was a randomized complete block with two dietary treatments [control (CON) and botanical blend (BB)] and 36 replicate pens per treatment (16 pigs/pen, 576 pigs/treatment). All piglets were fed a three-phase feeding program: P1, days 1-10; P2, days 11-21; P3, days 21-42. Diets were corn-soy and contained 150 ppm total zinc; P1 and P2 diets also contained 250 ppm of chlortetracycline. The botanical supplement was included in the P1 and P2 BB diets at a rate of 250 ppm. Body weight (BW) and feed disappearance were recorded weekly to calculate average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Body condition scoring and diarrhea frequency and severity were measured weekly for the first 4 weeks. Data were analyzed using PROC GLMMIX of SAS with appropriate models for the different data distributions. Pen was the experimental unit. The overall herd mortality and culling rate were 0.17% and 3.04%, respectively. Further, more than 95% of the pigs were in good body condition and did not differ between treatments. Pigs fed BB had a greater survival rate at the end of the study (97.9 vs 95.7%; P = 0.01) and diarrhea incidence was reduced by 5% for pigs fed BB compared with CON. In early nursery (days 1-21), pigs fed BB had a lower FCR (1.21 vs. 1.23 kg/kg; P = 0.049) and greater ADG (0.276 vs. 0.267 kg/d; P = 0.016), resultant in heavier BW at day 21 (12.1 vs. 11.9 kg; P = 0.046) than those fed CON. Considering the entire nursery (days 1-42), pigs fed BB tended to have greater ADG (0.430 vs 0.421 kg/d; P = 0.06) and ADFI (0.580 vs. 0.568 kg/d; P = 0.054) overall compared with CON. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of the botanical blend reduced diarrhea incidence and significantly improved early (1-21 days post-weaning) growth performance and feed efficiency in commercially housed weaned piglets. These early growth benefits persisted to the end of the nursery period, as a tendency for increased growth rate and feed intake.