Effects of Herbiotic FS supplementation on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood profiles, and faecal scores in weanling pigs

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Herbiotic FS supplementation on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood characteristics, and faecal scores in weanling pigs. A total of 150 weanling pigs [(Landrace×Yorkshire)×Duroc] with an average initial body weight of 8.02 ± 0.92 kg were randomly assigned to 5 dietary treatments (5 replicate pens per treatment with 6 pigs per pen). The dietary treatments were as follows: (1) negative control: basal diet, (2) positive control: basal diet + 150 mg/kg apramycin, (3) Herbiotic1: basal diet + 250 mg/kg Herbiotic FS, (4) Herbiotic2 (basal diet + 500 mg/kg Herbiotic FS), and (5) Herbiotic3: (basal diet + 250 mg/kg Herbiotic FS + 75 mg/kg apramycin). During days 1–7, pigs fed positive control, Herbiotic2 and Herbiotic3 diets had improved average daily gain and gain:feed ratio compared with those fed negative control or Herbiotic1 diets (P < 0.05). On day 21, pigs fed positive control and Herbiotic3 diets had increased nitrogen digestibility compared with those fed negative control or Herbiotic1 diets (P < 0.05). In conclusion, Herbiotic FS supplementation decreased the pathogenic count in the gut owing to its antimicrobial activity and this in turn caused the nutrients more available to the animal contributing to the growth.

Keywords

• Growth performance
• herbiotic FS
• nutrient digestibility
• weanling pigs