Effects of different processing techniques of broken rice on processing quality of pellet feed, nutrient digestibility and gut microbiota of weaned piglets

The present study was conducted to assess the effect of different processing techniques of broken rice on processing quality of pellet feed, growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood biochemical parameters and fecal microbiota of weaned piglets. A total of 400 crossbred piglets (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire) with a mean initial body weight (BW) of 7.24±0.52 kg were used in a 28-day experiment. Piglets were randomly distributed to one of 4 treatment and 10 replicate pens per treatment, with 10 piglets per pen. The dietary treatments were as follows: CON, corn as the main cereal type in the dietary; BR, 70% of the corn replaced by broken rice; ETBR, 70% of the corn replaced by extruded broken rice; EPBR, 70% of the corn replaced by expanded broken rice. Extruded broken rice and expanded broken rice supplementation significantly (P