Work

Replacing high zinc oxide with natural additives (organic acid blends, essential oils, and capsicum oleoresin) reveals better growth performance in weaning pigs

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: The inclusion of antibiotics and zinc oxide (ZnO) in weanlings diet become a common method to cope with various stressor.With the widespread ban on antibiotic growth promoters in feed, producers started to focus on the use pharmacological doses of ZnO, however prolonged use of high levels of ZnO leads to microbial imprints.To over this issue, we aimed to examine whether replacing high ZnO with natural additives (organic acid blends [OAB], essential oils [EO], capsicum oleoresin [CO], and artificial sweetener [AS]) could reveal better growth performance, nutrient digestibility, fecal microbiota, and fecal score in weaning pigs.For this, a total of 200 ([Landrace × Yorkshire] × Duroc) piglets with an average body weight (BW) of 6.50 ± 0.66 kg were divided into 4 groups and randomly assigned to have 1 of 5 dietary treatments.The test treatments were as follows: low ZnO (LZ) -basal diet + 125 ppm of ZnO; high ZnO (HZ) -basal diet + 2,500 ppm of ZnO; TRT 1 -LZ + 5 g•kg -1 OAB; TRT 2 -LZ + 0.025 g•kg -1 EO + 0.035 g•kg -1 CO + 0.1 g•kg -1 AS; TRT 3 -LZ + 5 g•kg -1 OAB + 0.025 g•kg -1 EO + 0.035 g•kg -1 CO + 0.1 g•kg -1 AS.Our findings reveal that replacing high ZnO with combination of natural additives (OAB, EO, and CO) improved (p < 0.05) average daily gain and reduce gain to feed ratio in weaning pigs without showing adverse effect on nutrient digestibility, fecal microbiota, and fecal score.In summary, we believe that this study offers a valuable insight into using natural additives in combination with low levels of ZnO as a sustainable alternative to high ZnO levels for better pig production along with biosafety issues.

Source: Korean Journal of Agricultural Science

DOI: 10.7744/kjoas.510435

Authors: Vetriselvi Sampath, In Ho Kim

Institution: Dankook University

Language: English

Topic: Animal Nutrition and Physiology

Subfield: Animal Science and Zoology

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

SDGs: Zero hunger, Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: hybrid

OpenAlex ID: W4405902366