This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Biotite V supplementation on growth performance, nutrients digestibility and blood constituents and to evaluate whether Biotite V could replace an antibiotics in growing pigs diet. One hundred twenty pigs with initial body weight of 18.35±0.15 kg were used in a 28 days growth trial. Pigs were allotted to four treatments by sex and body weight in a randomized complete block design. There were six replicate pens per treatment and five pigs per pen. Four dietary treatments were: 1) NC (basal diet without antibiotics), 2) PC (basal diet+0.1% CTC), 3) NCBV (NC diet+0.5% 200 mesh Biotite V) and 4) PCBV (PC diet+0.5% 200 mesh Biotite V). Through the entire experimental period, ADG tented to increase in NCBV and PCBV treatments compared to NC and PC treatments respectively, but no significant differences were observed (p>0.05). ADFI was slightly lower in NCBV and PCBV treatments than that in NC and PC treatments without significant differences (p>0.05). Gain/feed in PC and PCBV treatments was improved significantly compared to NC treatment (p<0.05). N and Ca digestibilities were higher in PCBV treatments than those in PC treatment (p<0.05). DM and P digestibilities were not affected by the addition of Biotite V (p>0.05). RBC, HCT, Hb, lymphocyte and monocyte were increased numerically in NCBV and PCBV treatments compared to NC and PC treatments (p>0.05). WBC was lower in treatment groups than that in NC treatment, but no significant differences were observed (p>0.05). In conclusion, dietary supplementation of Biotite V can better the gain/feed and some of the nutrients digestibilities in growing pigs. It has a possibility to replace antibiotics in swine diet.

For Exp. 1, one hundred twenty Duroc×Yorkshire×Landrace pigs (6.34±0.70 kg average initial BW) were used in a 35 d growth assay. There were six pigs per pen and four pens per treatment. Dietary treatments included 1) NC (negative control; basal diet), 2) PC (positive control; added 5% HP 300  , HAMLET PROTEIN A/S, as protein source), 3) PSP 2.5 (added 2.5% Pepsoygen  , Genebiotech Co. Ltd., as protein source), 4) PSP 5.0 (added 5% Pepsoygen  as protein source), and 5) PSP 7.5 (added 7.5% Pepsoygen  as protein source). For d 21, ADFI was increased in pigs fed PSP diets compared with PC diet (p<0.05). ADG was tended to improve as concentration of PSP in the diets was increased. For d 21-35 and entire experimental period, pigs fed PSP diets had more feed intake than pigs fed NC or PC diets (p<0.05). For the whole period, ADG was improved in PSP treatments compared with NC treatment (Linear effect, p=0.05). On d 21 and d 35, digestibilities of DM and N were higher (p<0.05) for pigs fed PSP diets than pigs fed NC diet and PSP 2.5 treatment was the highest among the treatments. On d 21, digestibility of N was significantly improved in PSP treatments compared with PC treatment (p<0.05). For Exp. 2, five Duroc×Yorkshire×Landrace barrows (8.74±0.22 kg average initial BW) were surgically fitted with a simple T-cannulas approximately 15 cm prior to the ileo-cecal junction. The experimental designs were 5×5 latin squares with pigs and periods as blocking criteria. Dietary treatments were same as Exp.1. Generally, apparent ileal digestibilities of DM and N were higher for pigs fed PSP diets than pigs fed NC or PC diets (p<0.05) and PSP 5.0 and 2.5 treatments were the highest among the treatments, respectively. Apparent ileal digestibilities of the whole amino acids were increased in PSP treatments compared with NC treatment (Quadratic effect, p≤0.05). Also, histidine, lysine and threonine digestibilities in essential amino acids and alanine, asparatic acid and glycine digestibilities in non essential amino acids were significantly higher for pigs fed PSP diets than pigs fed PC diets (p≤0.05). In conclusion, feeding processed soy protein to weanling pigs increased growth performance, nutrient digestibility and apparent ileal digestibilities of DM, N and most amino acids.

One hundred and twenty crossbred pigs [(Duroc×Yorkshire)×Landrace] were used to determine the effects of plant extract (PE) supplementation on performance and blood characteristics in weaned pigs fed a corn-dried whey-SBM based diet. Treatments were 1) NC (antibiotic free basal diet), 2) PC (NC diet+100 ppm apramycin and 100 ppm oxytetracycline), 3) PE 0.1 (NC diet+0.1% plant extract), 4) PE 0.2 (NC diet+0.2% plant extract) and 5) PE+AB (PC diet+0.1% plant extract). Through the entire experimental period, ADG of pigs fed PC (300 vs. 281 g/d), PE 0.2 (310 vs. 281 g/d) and PE+AB (306 vs. 281 g/d) diets was higher than that of pigs fed NC diet (p<0.05). However, no differences were found among the treatments for ADFI and gain/feed. At day 2 after the onset of the experiment, fecal consistency score of pigs fed PC, PE 0.1, PE 0.2 and PE+AB diets was lower than that of pigs fed NC diet. There were no significant differences in red blood cell, white blood cell, lymphocytes, neutrophils and monocytes concentrations of blood among the treatments. In conclusion, PE can be used to replace antibiotics in diets for weaned pigs without negative affects on performance. Optimal PE levels seemed to be 0.2% and the results obtained point out to a synergic effect of the combination of PE and antibiotic on performance in weaned pigs.

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of direct-fed microbial supplementation on the growth performance and nutrient digestibility in pigs. In experiment 1, forty eight pigs were used in a 42-d growth assay. There were four pigs per pen and three pens per treatment. Dietary treatments included 1) NC (without antibiotic basal diet), 2) PC (NC diet+0.1% antibiotic, 100 g/kg chlortetracycline), 3) DFM-1 (NC diet+0.2% Lactobacillus reuteri and Lactobacillus salivarius complex) and 4) DFM-2 (NC diet+0.2% Lactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus salivarius, Lactobacillus plantarum and Yeast complex). For the overall period, no treatment had significant effects in growth performance. In the nutrition digestibility, the pigs fed DFM diets were improved in DM and N digestibility compared with the pigs fed NC and PC diets but it was not significantly different. In experiment 2, sixty four crossbred pigs were used in a 98-d growth assay. There were four pigs per pen and four pens per treatment. Dietary treatments included 1) HND (high nutrient diet), 2) LND (low nutrient diet), 3) HND+DFM (HND diet+0.2% Lactobacillus reuteri and Lactobacillus plantarum complex) and 4) LND+DFM (LND diet+0.2% Lactobacillus reuteri and Lactobacillus plantarum complex). For overall period of growing phase, the pigs fed LND diets had improved gain/feed (p=0.01) and for overall period in the finishing phase, the pigs fed LND with DFM diets had higher ADG, ADFI and gain/feed than the others but there were no significant differences (p>0.13). In total period of growing-finishing phase, the pigs fed LND diet had higher gain/feed than the pigs fed HND diets (p<0.05). In growing phase, there were not significant differences among the treatments means for DM and N digestibility. However, the pigs fed diets with DFM had improved N digestibility (p<0.02) compared to the pigs fed diets without DFM in finishing phase. In conclusion, DFM slightly improved the growth performance in growing-finishing pigs.

In Exp. 1, a total of 36 pigs (6.55±0.10 kg average initial body weight and 21 d average age) were used in a 14 d growth study to determine the effects of replacing spray-dried plasma protein (SDPP) with spray-dried egg protein containing specific egg yolk antibody (SDEP) on growth performance and nutrient digestibility in weaned pigs. The pigs were blocked by weight and assigned to treatments based on sex. There were three pigs per pen and four pens per treatment. Dietary treatments were 0, 3, or 6% SDEP and contained 6, 3, or 0% SDPP, respectively. Through the entire experimental period, average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and gain/feed tended to decrease as the concentration of SDEP increased in the diets. However, there were no significant differences among the treatments (p>0.05). As the addition of SDEP in the diets increased, apparent digestibilities of dry matter (DM) and nitrogen (N) were decreased without significant (p>0.05). For Exp. 2, 36 pigs (2.63±0.04 kg average initial body weight and 10 d average age) were used in a 14 d growth study to determine the effects of antibiotic replacement with SDEP on growth performance and nutrient digestibility in early-weaned pigs. The pigs were blocked by weight and assigned to treatments based on sex. There were three pigs per pen and four pens per treatment. Dietary treatments included 1) ANTIBIOTIC (corn-dried whey-soybean meal based diet+0.08% antibiotics, 4 mg of tiamuline hydrogen fumarate; 10 mg of sulfadimidine per kg of complete diet), 2) SDEP0.1 (corndried whey-SBM based diet+0.1% SDEP), and 3) SDEP0.2 (corn-dried whey-SBM based diet+0.2% SDEP). ADG and gain/feed of pigs fed the SDEP0.2 diet were higher than for pigs fed the ANTIBIOTIC diet without significant (p>0.05). Pigs fed the diet with SDEP0.2 tended to have increased apparent digestibilities of DM and N compared to pigs fed the ANTIBIOTIC diet without significant (p>0.05). In conclusion, the dietary SDEP seemed to be partial replacing the SDPP portion of high nutrient dense diet for weaned pigs. Also, dietary SDEP seemed to be approximately 0.2% or more when the pigs fed the antibiotic-free diet for early-weaned pigs.