Effects of Palm Kernel Expellers on Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, and Blood Profiles of Weaned Pigs

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of palm kernel expellers on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and blood profiles of weaned pigs. A total of 88 weaned pigs (6.94±0.76 kg body weight [BW]; 28 d old) were randomly allotted to 2 dietary treatments (4 pigs/pen; 11 replicates/treatment) in a randomized complete block design (sex as a block). The dietary treatments were a typical nursery diet based on corn and soybean meal (CON) and CON added with 20% of palm kernel expellers (PKE). Pigs were fed for 6 wk using a 3-phase feeding program with declining diet complexity and with phases of 1, 2, and 3 wk, respectively. Blood was collected from randomly selected 2 pigs in each pen before weaning and on d 7 after weaning. Pigs were fed respective dietary treatments containing 0.2% chromic oxide from d 29 to 35 after weaning. Fecal samples were collected from randomly selected 2 pigs in each pen daily for the last 3 days after the 4-d adjustment period. Measurements were growth performances, digestibility of dry matter, nitrogen and energy, white and red blood cell counts, packed cell volume, and incidence of diarrhea. The PKE increased average daily gain (ADG) (246 vs 215 g/d; p = 0.06) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) (470 vs 343 g/d; p<0.05) and decreased gain-to-feed ratio (G:F) (0.522 vs 0.628 g/g; p<0.05) during phase 2 compared with CON, but did not affect growth performance during phase 1 and 3. During overall experimental period, PKE increased ADG (383 vs 362 g/d; p = 0.05) and ADFI (549 vs 496 g/d; p<0.05) compared with CON, but did not affect G:F. However, no differences were found on digestibility of dry matter, nitrogen, and energy between CON and PKE. The PKE reduced frequency of diarrhea (15% vs 25%; p = 0.08) for the first 2 wk after weaning compared with CON. Similarly, PKE decreased white blood cells (8.19 vs 9.56×103/μL; p = 0.07), red blood cells (2.92 vs 3.25×106/μL; p = 0.09), and packed cell volume (11.1% vs 12.6%; p = 0.06) on d 7 after weaning compared with CON. In conclusion, addition of 20% palm kernel expellers to nursery diet based on corn and soybean meal had no negative effects on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and blood profiles of weaned pigs.

Effects of complex probiotic supplementation in growing pig diets with and without palm kernel expellers on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood parameters, fecal microbial shedding and noxious gas emission

“…() and Seo et al . () reported that addition of PKE to nursery piglet diets linearly reduced the growth performance such as BW, ADG and G:F. Also, it has been suggested that partial replacement of corn and SBM in finishing pig diets with PKE resulted in a reduction in nutrient digestibility, and consequently, reduced growth performance (Kim et al . ; Ao et al .…”

Effects of mannan level and β-mannanase supplementation on growth performance, apparent total tract digestibility and blood metabolites of growing pigs

“…The agro-industrial byproducts like palm kernel meal, rapeseed meal and distiller dried grains have recently received great attention because of their relatively comparable nutritional value and low price as compared with soybean meal (SBM) and corn (Fang et al, 2007;Seo et al, 2015). However, high concentrations of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) such as β-mannan have restricted their use in swine diets (Ao et al, 2011).…”

Palm kernel expellers as an alternative ingredient in growing pig diets

“…As regards non-ruminants, PKE is not a suitable source of energy due to its lack of available energy. Generally, PKE has a lower energy density, poor amino acid profile and higher fibre content for non-ruminants, compared to conventional feed ingredients (Son et al, 2012;Sulabo et al, 2013;Seo et al, 2015). This may reduce the nutrient digestibility and metabolized energy of PKE (Noblet & Le Goff, 2001;Seo et al, 2015).…”

“…Generally, PKE has a lower energy density, poor amino acid profile and higher fibre content for non-ruminants, compared to conventional feed ingredients (Son et al, 2012;Sulabo et al, 2013;Seo et al, 2015). This may reduce the nutrient digestibility and metabolized energy of PKE (Noblet & Le Goff, 2001;Seo et al, 2015). In addition, the relatively low palatability of PKE and apparently enhanced satiety of the pigs could be due to its high fibre content, compared to conventional ingredients (McDonald et al, 2011).…”

“…Palm kernel co-products in particular have an inferior amino acids profile, including lysine and methionine which are the most important amino acids for pigs, and poor overall amino acid digestibility, compared to that of soybean meal (NRC, 2012;Sulabo et al, 2013;Son et al, 2014;Stein et al, 2015). Despite the high fibre content and poor amino acids profile, many attempts have been made to evaluate its feeding potential to sows , weaned pigs (Jaworski et al, 2014;Seo et al, 2015), growing pigs (Son et al, 2012;Sulabo et al, 2013), finishing pigs (Kim et al, 2001;Ao et al, 2011), or growing-finishing pigs (Rhule, 1996). However, previous studies have shown that palm kernel co-products as an alternative to corn and soybean meal do not have a definite, positive impact on growth performance and nutrient digestibility, for instance, relatively low weight gain (Rhule, 1996;Ao et al, 2011;Son et al, 2012).…”