Nonruminant Nutrition: Additives and Supplements.

The article presents abstracts of various research papers related to nonruminant nutrition that were presented during the symposium held on July 24-28, 2005 in Cincinnati, Ohio, which was organized by the American Dairy Science Association, the American Society of Animal Science, and the Canadian Society of Animal Science. In one of the papers titled "A Strawberry Flavor in Drinking Water and Feed Improves Water Intake and Growth of Pigs at Weaning," a two-phase trial was conducted to study the effects of a strawberry flavor and a high intensity sweetener (HIS) in drinking water and feed on the performance of weanling pigs. Eighty 21 day-old Landrace piglets were distributed in 24 pens with three or four pigs, each provided with an independent water container. In phase I, all pigs were offered the same unflavored diet for a period of 14 days but four treatments were administered in the water: either with no additions, or with flavor, with HIS or both flavor and HIS. In phase II, the animals in each treatment were divided into two groups receiving unflavored water but offered either flavored or unflavored feed. Overall, the results suggested that water intake after weaning is encouraged with the use of flavor, and that this has beneficial effects on piglet performance.