The effect of enzyme treatment of cooked barley and supplementation of piglet diets on the digestibility of barley and piglet performance

Authors

• J. Inborr Finnish Sugar Co. Ltd., Finnfeeds Ltd., Forum House, Brighton Road, Redhill, Surrey RHI 6YS, England
• M. Näsi University of Helsinki, Department of Animal Husbandry, Viikki, 07100 Helsinki, Finland
• K. Suomi Agricultural Research Centre, Swine Research Station, SF-05840 Hyvinkää, Finland

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.72337

Abstract

A digestibility trial, designed as a 5*5 Latin square, with growing pigs was conducted to investigate the effect of cooking and enzyme treatment of barley on digestibility and nitrogen utilization. In addition, two piglet performance trials were conducted to investigate the effect of hydrothermal processing of barley and soybean meal and enzyme supplementation of piglet feeds on performance and health status. Five pigs, averaging 40 kg LW, were fitted with T-shaped cannulas in the terminal ileum and fed the experimental diets for five consequtive 12-day experimental periods. Chromic oxide was used as marker. Cooking of barley significantly improved the apparent faecal digestibility (AD) of DM, OM, CP and EE (p<0.5). AD of ash, CF, CCH and NDF was also improved by cooking, but not significantly. Treating cooked barley with enzymes decreased AD values for most nutrients to a level slightly higher than that of ground barley. Nitrogen retention and biological value of protein, however, was markedly improved by cooking and to a greater extent by the enzyme treatment. Ileal digestibility results were confusing, mainly due to problems in getting representative samples and recovering the marker. Consequently, these results are not reported. The energy content of cooked barley was calculated to be 1.17 FU/kg DM (15.32 MJ ME/kg DM) and that of ground barley 1.09 FU/kg DM (14.27 MJ ME/kg DM), the values of the enzyme treated barleys being intermediate. In trial 1, a total of thirty-six litters were allotted to three treatments of twelve replicates. Piglets were fed the experimental diets ad. lib. from two to eight weeks and were weaned at five weeks of age. Treatments were: 1. basal diet containing untreated barley and SBM, 2. basal diet, containing cooked barley and extruded SBM and 3. diet 2 with added enzymes. Final weights and live weight gains on treatment 2 and 3 were significantly (p<0.05) inferior to treatment 1. There were no differences in feed intake and utilization between treatments, Health status of piglets on treatment 2 and 3 was inferior to that of treatment 1. No piglets were medicated due to diarrhoea. In trial,2 , forty-eight early-weaned piglets were allotted to two treatments of four replicates. Piglets had free access to the experimental diets during the 19-day experimental period. Diets were formulated to have the same composition. In treatment 2, however, an enzyme mixture was added at a five times higher inclusion rate than in treatment 1 (0.5 vs. 0.1 %, respectively). Piglets on treatment 2 gained 8 % faster weight than those on treatment 1. Feed intake was slightly higher on treatment 2, but feed conversion ratio was 7 % lower. Due to high variation within treatments the differences between treatments were not significant (p>0.05). There were no differences in health status between treatments.