Select Menhaden Fish Meal and Spray Dried Blood Cells in Phase 1 and 2 Diets for Weanling Pigs

Source: Q. Zhang, T. L. Veum, and D. Bollinger

An experiment with two trials was conducted to evaluate the partial replacement of spray dried animal plasma (AP) with special select menhaden fish meal (FM) and spray dried animal blood cells (BC) in weanling pig diets. A total of 232 crossbred pigs were weaned at 3 weeks of age (initial 5.9 kg BW) and allotted to treatments by litter, sex and weight. The 28-day experiment was divided into two phases: Phase 1 (P1), d 0-14, and P2, d 14-28. The four dietary treatments in P1 were: (T1) a control diet containing 6% AP, (T2) 4% AP plus 2.76% FM, (T3) 4% AP plus 1.53% BC and (T4) 2% AP plus 2.76% FM and 1.53% BC. The replacements were on an equal lysine basis. All diets contained 1.50% lysine, .45% methionine and 3.45 Mcal/kg. In P2, all pigs were fed a common diet containing 2.76% FM and 1.53% BC without any AP. There were no treatment interactions between P1 and P2 for growth performance criteria. For P1, there were no treatment differences (P>.1) for BW, ADG, ADFI and G/F ratio except that G/F ratio was higher (P<.05) for T3 compared to all other treatments. For P2, ADFI was improved in T2, T3 and T4 compared to T1 (P<.05). Overall (d 0 to 28), there were no treatment differences (P>.2) for ADG. However, pigs in T3 and T4 had higher ADFI (P<.05) and pigs in T4 had a lower G/F ratio (P<.05) compared to pigs in T1. In conclusion, FM and BC are effective and economical protein sources in weanling pig diets.

Full Article »

Foward to an Associate