Pre-slaughter handling of pigs established properly is very important, not only from the point of view of welfare, but also for the quality of meat. The aim of present research was to evaluate the effect of gender and density of pigs during their transport to the abattoir on the skin temperature and carcass and meat quality. Were used 192 (115.54 ± 6.03 kg) finishing pigs to investigate the effects of gender (barrows and gilts) and transport densities for slaughter (236, 251, and 275 kg/m²) on the skin temperature and carcass and meat quality. Average skin temperature between genders and transport densities at any point of time during pre-slaughter did not differ. Skin temperatures before unloading had the highest average value relative to all other time points, followed by immediately after unloading and remaining the same for the next 2 h. Lowest skin temperature value was registered on pigs at the pre-slaughter time followed by farm and at loading times. Pigs transported with different densities did not show differences for the skin carcass lesions. Meat from pigs transported at 275 kg/m² presented higher frequency of red, soft, exudative (RSE) and lower of red, firm, non-exudative (RFN) classes as compared to those for other densities. Animals transported at 236 and 251 kg/m² did not differ as the frequency of RSE and RFN meat. Skin temperature of pigs oscillate along the pre-slaughter times and the pre-slaughter transport of pigs at 236 and 251 kg/m² generates less frequency classes of faulty pork, although difference in the densities did not have any effect on the skin temperature and skin lesions.

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the digestibility and energy of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) from corn and sorghum with or without xylanase enzyme in diets for pigs. The values of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), mineral matter (MM), ether extract (EE), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), gross (GE), digestible (DE), metabolizable energy (ME), and digestibility coefficients (DC) were determined. In the experiment 1, we used eight barrows of 26.15±3.45 kg with repeated measures in three periods of five days of collection. The treatments consisted of a reference diet (RD); RD with 200 g kg −1 corn DDGS or sorghum DDGS; and RD with 400 g kg −1 corn DDGS or sorghum DDGS. Corn DDGS showed higher values of DE, ME, and DC of EE, GE, and CP. Inclusions of 400 g kg −1 of the test ingredients resulted in higher values of DE and ME and trend for higher DC of DM, OM, and CP. In experiment 2, nine barrows weighing 34.91±1.46 kg were fed RD, 200 g kg −1 corn DDGS or 200 g kg −1 corn DDGS plus xylanase enzyme. The inclusion of xylanase did not influence the digestibility and energy values in diets containing corn DDGS. Values of DE and ME of corn DDGS were 3,477 and 3,277 kcal kg −1 , respectively, for the substitution of 200 g kg −1 and 3,761 and 3,068 kcal kg −1 for the substitution of 400 g kg −1 RD. For sorghum DDGS, DE and ME values were 3,030 and 2,863 kcal kg −1 , respectively, for replacement of 200 g kg −1 and 3,398 and 3,296 kcal kg −1 for substitution of 400 g kg −1 RD. Levels of up to 400 g kg −1 do not influence the DE and ME of the diets but impair the digestibility coefficient of DM, OM, CP, EE, MM, and NDF. The use of xylanase enzyme in diets containing 200 g kg −1 of corn DDGS does not affect the digestibility of the diets.