Effects of supplementation of dietary betaine on apparent nutrient digestibility and physiological responses in finishing pigs

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of supplementation of dietary betaine on nutrient digestibility and physiological responses in finishing pigs. A total of twelve pigs with a body weight of 80.1±3.7 kg were individually caged, and randomly assigned to one of the two experimental diets containing 0 (control) or 5 g/kg (treatment) of the betaine in a 2 × 2 Latin square design. The experimental period was 14 days-7 days adaptation and 7 days trial period-per phase. All data for the difference between control and treatment groups were statistically analyzed by student's t-test. Dry matter and crude protein digestibility in the treatment group were significantly improved by 1% and 1.3%, respectively, as compared with those in the control (p<0.05). The apparent absorption of dietary energy was increased from 82.3% to 83.7% by dietary betaine supplementation. Thus, the retention of energy was also significantly increased to above 6% in the treatment group compared with the control group (control 4,057 vs treatment 4,314 kcal; p<0.01). The physiological parameters indicating serum biochemical contents and stress-, immune-, and inflammatory-responses were not changed by the supplementation of dietary betaine. In conclusion, dietary betaine improves the nutrient digestibility without any negative effects in terms of physiology in finishing pigs. It suggests that the supplementation of dietary betaine may increase the productivity through the improvement of weight gain and feeding efficiency.