Xylanase: No effect in liquid diets for weaner pigs
Results from recent research does not provide support for supplementing wheat-based liquid diets for weaner pig diets with xylanase.
In total, 72 individually housed, entire male (Large White × Landrace) weaner pigs of 28 days were used in a 26-day feeding trial. The pigs were allocated to one of six treatments.
The factors were:
• Steeping duration of liquid feed (0 hours, 1 hour or 24 h);
• Enzyme supplementation (0 or 300 ppm xylanase).
The basal diet was wheat-based (65%) and was formulated to be marginally adequate for pigs of this age, containing 14.5 MJ digestible energy (DE)/kg and 0.85 g available lysine/MJ DE.
Feeding pigs liquid diets steeped for 1 hour increased feed intake (61 g/day) and daily gain (70 g/day) and improved feed conversion ratio compared with pigs fed dry diets.
Performance was not further improved by steeping for 24 hours. The addition of xylanase to the diets had no positive effect on any of the performance measures and was associated with a significant (40 g/day) reduction in feed intake.
The research was carried out by Katie A. l’Anson and Mingan Choct, University of New England, Australia; and Peter H. Brooks, Plymouth University.
Feed processing and enzyme supplementation
A second trial http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/AN12256.htm by this same group of researchers focused on the effect of feed processing and enzyme supplementation on diet digestibility and performance of male weaner pigs, when fed wheat-based diets in dry or liquid form.
The results of this trial, which included 144 individually housed male weaner pigs, indicated that when diets were fed in liquid form, prior steam pelleting of the diets and enzyme supplementation did not provide additional benefit.
The articles were published in Animal Production Science.
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