Fiber in Animal Nutrition

Fiber in Swine Nutrition 32 the trial group were fed a pre-weaning feed from day 10 of life, followed by a starter feed (day 1-21 after weaning). The feed in the trial group was substituted with 1 % cellulose as top dressing. Both groups were fed with a follow starter without cellulose from day 22 until the end of the rearing period (day 68). Table 11 shows that feeding insoluble cellu- lose resulted in improved piglet performance. The daily weight gainwas significantly impro- ved in the cellulose group resulting in 1.4 kg higher weight at the end of the feeding trial. In 2015 the University of Parma (Superchi et al.) conducted a feeding trial with lignocel- lulose in piglet feeds at the point of weaning. Inclusion of lignocellulose (1%) in a standard diet increased ADFI and ADG significantly (p< 0.05) (figure 8). On day 52 piglets fed extra insoluble fiber had reached significantly higher body weight (+22%). Currentlymore andmore evidence is arising that apart from adding special feed additives focusing on the insoluble fiber content of piglet feeds around weaning is an excellent nutritional approach to stabilize the animals gut in this critical phase. 2.5.3 Hogs It is well acknowledged that a minimumfiber content (not below 3.5% CF) is required in the diets for hogs in order to maintain a healthy gut. Research in the past decades has concentrated on using fibrous feed stuffs to dilute diets and investigate its influence on growth rate, carcass data and nutrient dige- stibility. Presently there is no data available focusing on physicochemical characteristics of fiber in hog nutrition. 2.6 Conclusion Fiber is an important element in swine nu- trition contributing to animal health and welfare. But until present fibrous diets are often still associated to dilution in terms of energy and digestibility. Aminimum level of fiber has to be included in the diets of swine in order to maintain normal physiological function of the gut.The negative attributes of fiber are determined by the inclusion rate and the characteristics of individual fibrous feed components. Additionally fiber sources which are often derived from cereal or oil seed by-products involve certain risks.These risks are associated to feed hygiene (mycotoxins, pests) and other quality properties (dust, flowability). This makes close evaluation obligatory. Apart from typical by-products on the market alternative fiber sources are available. Crude fiber concentrates are high quality (no mycotoxin risk) insoluble fiber sources Age (days) Experimental diets CV (%) P 21-63 C CEL SH CP ADFI, g 703.31 759.38 738.73 728.77 14.52 0.9318 ADG, g 424.70 470.83 431.87 416.88 13.19 0.2435 FC 1.68 1.62 1.71 1.71 6.21 0.5513 Table 10: Average daily feed intake (ADFI), daily gain (ADG) and feed conversion (FC) of diets for weaned piglets fed different fiber sources, (Fonseca Pascoal, 2012 modified) C – control diet; CEL – diet containing 1.5% purified cellulose; SH – diet containing 3% soybean hulls; CP – diet containing 9% citrus pulp; CV – coefficient of variation © ERLING Verlag