The influence of diet composition and an anti-microbial growth promoter on the growth response of weaned piglets to spray dried animal plasma

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted with spray dried animal plasma (SDAP) in diets for piglets from 0 to 14 days post-weaning. Experiment 1 was conducted to determine a possible interaction between diet composition and SDAP in diets without anti-microbial growth promoter (AMGP). Experiment 2 was conducted to determine a possible interaction between SDAP and AMGP. Both experiments comprised four treatments in a 2×2 factorial arrangement. The respective factors were diet composition (simple vs. complex with more animal protein) and SDAP (0% vs. 4%) in experiment 1 and AMGP (0 vs. 40 ppm avilamycine) and SDAP (0% vs. 4%) in experiment 2. During the first week post-weaning SDAP improved feed intake by 14% in experiment 2 and average daily gain (ADG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) by approximately 20% and 10%, respectively, in both experiments ( P<0.05). SDAP effects were more pronounced for the complex diet in experiment 1 and tended to have more effect on ADG and average daily feed intake (ADFI) for the diet without avilamycine in experiment 2. In conclusion, SDAP in weaning diets had a positive effect on growth performance of the piglets, but this was largely restricted to the first week post-weaning. The magnitude of the effect depends on diet complexity and was more pronounced for diets without AMGP.