Fiber in Animal Nutrition

27 Fiber effects related to health and welfare topics weaning body weight, intestinal changes and the E. coli proliferation was determined. The inclusion of guar gum increased the intestinal weight and fermentation processes. E coli was able to develop in the SI. This resulted in reduced body weight gains. The occurrence of post weaning diarrhea is influenced by the fiber source administered. Fonseca Pascoal et al. (2012) investigated the influence of cellulose (1.5%), soybean hulls (3%) and citrus pulp (9%) in the diet of weaner pigs on performance, intestinal transit time and diarrhea (table 6). The diets were reformulated to meet piglets nutritional requirements. Whi le performance and intestinal transit time of the digesta was not influenced by including different fiber sources it significantly influenced the faecal scoring.The piglets fed the diets with soybean hulls and citrus pulp comprising the highest soluble fiber content had a higher occurrence of diarrhea than the control group. The cellulose group with the highest insoluble fiber content had the lowest incidence of diarrhea. The authors conclude that soluble fiber can serve as a substrate for pathogenic bacteria, while the inclusion of cellulose as an insoluble fiber can promote beneficial effects in controlling diarrhea. The goal of post-weaning diets is a smooth transition from milk based, liquid diets to starch based, solid diets thereby minimizing the problems associated to intestinal mal- functioning. When feeding fiber sources in this phase the individual physicochemical characteristics need to be considered. Dif- ferent studies show that in the post-weaning phase the use of insoluble fiber sources is favourable. 2.4.3 Hogs Fiber is an important building block in hog nutrition due to its dietary effects. Fi- ber rich diets contribute to an increased passage rate thereby limiting the time for pathogenic bacteria to proliferate in the gut. Furthermore low fiber content in the feed can be the starting point for cannibalism, digestive problems and stomach ulcers. The crude fiber content in diets for hogs should be at least 3.5%. This is difficult to achieve in diets with high requirement on energy and protein. This is the case when feeding a corn-soy based diet or diets based on by- Scoring 1 Experimental diets 2 Total % Scoring C CEL SH CP 1 30 51 34 28 143 19.86 2 125 109 101 112 447 62.08 3 25 20 45 40 130 18.06 Total 180 180 180 180 720 100 % score 3* 13.89 b 11.11 c 25.00 a 22.22 a – – 1 Scoring: 1 – normal faeces; 2 – soft stool and 3 – watery stool 2 C – control diet; CEL – diet containing 1.5% purified cellulose; SH – diet containing 3% soybean hulls and CP – diet containing 9% citrus pulp; Means following the same letter in row did not differ (P>0.01) by Kruskal-Wallis test; *Percentage of diarrhea cases. Table 6: Faecal scores and diarrhea incidence in weaning pigets fed different sources of dietary fiber (Fonseca Pascoal et al., 2012) © ERLING Verlag