Nonruminant Nutrition: Mannan-Oligosaccharides, Yeast Culture, and Probiotics.

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 "Effect of Dietary Mannan-Oligosaccharides and Organic Zinc on Growth Performance and Prevalence of Post-Weaning Diarrhea in Piglets," The efficacy of Mannan-oligosaccharide (MOS) and organic zinc (Zn) to enhance performance and prevent diarrhea in early-weaned pigs was evaluated. A total of 128 piglets, weaned at 20±2 days were housed in 32 pens following a complete randomized design. Animals received four dietary treatments: a control diet to which 0.2% of a commercial source of MOS, 0.08% organic Zn or both additives were added. The experiment lasted for 5 weeks including a pre-starter period of two weeks and a starter period of three weeks. Results suggested that the use of MOS or organic Zn can both improve the adaptation of the weaning pig to the dry food, thus reducing the incidence of post-weaning diarrhea, This was also manifested by an increase in the feed efficiency ratio.