Sixty [(Duroc×Yorkshire)×Landrace] pigs (7.63±0.41kg average body weight and 25-d average age) were used in a 20-d growth assay to determine the effect of dietary recombinant human lactoferricin culture (RHLC) supplementation on growth performance, digestibility and plasma IgG concentration in weaning pigs. Dietary treatments included 1) Negative control (NC : without antibiotic), 2) Positive control (PC : NC diet + 0.1% chlortetracycline), 3) RHLC0.3 (NC diet + 0.3% RHLC), 4) RHLC0.5 (NC diet + 0.5% RHLC). No differences were found among treatments in average daily gain (P 0.05). ADFI of pigs fed RHLC0.3 diet was higher than that of pigs fed PC diet (P 0.05). However, pigs fed RHLC0.5 diet had improved gain/feed compared to pigs fed PC diet. Pigs fed PC and RHLC diets showed significantly increased dry matter digestibility compared to pigs fed NC diet (P 0.05). There was no significant difference in plasma IgG concentrations (P 0.05). The supplementation of RHLC in starter pig diets appears to be an alternative to antibiotics.
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