PSVI-17 Digestawell XG Improves Piglet Performance When Dietary Net Energy Content is Decreased

Plant based dietary ingredients contain non-starch polysaccharides (NSP). Both soluble and insoluble NSP may limit intestinal absorption and digestion of dietary nutrients along the intestinal tract of monogastric animals. Increased digesta viscosity also occurs, which results in satiety and potential health issues. DIGESTAWell XG (Probiotech International Inc.), a commercially available enzyme-based feed additive that contains increased endo-1,4-β-xylanase and endo-1,3(4)-β-glucanase activity, hydrolyzes NSP resulting in increased nutrient availability and digestibility. Therefore, it was hypothesized that nursery pigs consuming low net energy (NE) diets with DIGESTAWell XG will demonstrate similar growth performance as nursery pigs consuming greater NE diets. A 47-day trial was conducted with 21-day old nursery pigs (6.0 kg) allocated to three groups: control (CON), low energy (-56 kcal/kg feed; LE), and low energy + enzyme (LE+E). All groups had 13 pens of 28 pigs (n = 364), and received wheat and corn mix based diets that had a similar NSP content (11.4%). CON diets had greater NE (2,456 kcal/kg feed) relative to the LE and LE+E groups (2400 kcal/kg feed). The diet of the LE+E group was supplemented with DIGESTAWell XG at 0.22kg/Ton of feed. For each pen the daily feed intake, weekly weight, diarrhea index and mortality were recorded. Data were analyzed by an ANOVA model (Statistix 8.0; Analytical Software, FL) including treatment and pen as fixed and random effects, respectively, and a Chi-square test for pairwise differences. Compared with both CON and LE, LE+E increased (P< 0.05) average daily gain (ADG) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) during weeks 4 to 7 and weeks 1 to 7, and significantly increased final weight (Table 1). During weeks 1 to 3, ADG and ADFI did not differ between CON and LE+E groups, and the LE+E group was significantly greater than LE. Over the entire period, LE impacted (P< 0.05) negatively the feed conversion ratio (FCR) compared with CON, however, during weeks 4-7 the LE+E had similar FCR compared with CON (P> 0.05). No significant effects were observed on mortality or diarrhea index. In conclusion, DIGESTAWell XG improves piglet performance when dietary NE content is decreased which may offer some formulation flexibility.