Abstract
Abstract The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of a proprietary combination of brown, green and red seaweeds OceanFeedTM Swine (OFS) as a replacement of in-feed antibiotic growth promotors (AGP) or pharmacological levels of zinc oxide on performance of nursery and growing finishing pigs and carcass characteristics. Three hundred and twenty crossbred piglets (5.88 ± 0.26 kg) were blocked by BW and randomly allotted to 1 or 4 dietary treatments of low ZnO and no AGP but formulated to meet NRC (2012) nutrient requirements (Negative control (NC, T1)), NC + OFS (0.75 % in the nursery and 0.5% in the grower-finisher) (T2), NC + high ZnO + OFS (T3), Positive control (PC), formulated to meet NRC (2012) nutrient requirements + high ZnO + AGP, (T4). All data were analyzed using PROC MIXED procedure of SAS (version 9.4; SAS Inst., Inc., Cary, NC). The model included fixed effect of treatment and random effect of replicate. Pen with 8 pigs was the experimental unit. Adjustment for multiple comparisons was by Tukey Kramer’s method. Overall (d 0 to 149), pigs on T4 diets had greater (0.47 vs 0.50; P = 0.013) and tended to have greater (0.48 vs 0.50; P = 0.083) G:F than pigs on the control (T1) and T2 diets, respectively. Relative to pigs on the T1 diet, ADG (0.796 vs 0.799 kg) and G:F (0.47 vs 0.48) of pigs fed the T2 diet were similar (P ˃0.10). Furthermore, pigs fed T4 and T3 diets did not differ in terms of ADFI (2.15 vs 2.14 kg; P = 0.994), ADG (0.804 vs 0.826 kg; P = 0.235), and G:F (0.48 vs 0.50; P = 0.260). Dietary treatments did not affect final BW, hot carcass weight, carcass yield, BF thickness, rib eye area, and percent lean (P ˃0.10). Based on performance criteria, these findings suggest OFS seaweed blend can replace either antibiotic growth promotors or pharmacological levels of zinc oxide in swine feeds.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.