Special Select Menhaden Fish Meal and Spray Dried Blood Cells in Diets for Weanling Pigs

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

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the partial replacement of spray dried animal plasma (SDAP) with special select menhaden fish meal (SMFM) and spray dried animal blood cells (SDBC) in weanling pig diets. A total of 232 crossbred pigs were weaned at an average of 18 d 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 (T) in P1 were: (T1) a control diet containing 6% SDAP, (T2) 4% SDAP plus 2.76% SMFM, (T3) 4% SDAP plus 1.53% SDBC and (T4) 2% SDAP plus 2.76% SMFM and 1.53% SDBC. 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% SMFM and 1.53% SDBC without any SDAP. All P1 and P2 diets were pelleted, and P1 diets were fed as crumbles. For P1, there were no treatment differences (P>.1) for BW, ADG and ADFI. However, G/F was higher (P<.05) for T3 compared to all other treatments. For P2, ADFI was higher for 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, SMFM and SDBC are effective and economical protein sources in weanling pig diets.

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