Energy content and amino acid digestibility in hulled and dehulled corn and the performance of weanling pigs fed diets containing hulled or dehulled corn
2013
Liu, Dewen | Liu, Ling | Li, Defa | Wang, Fenglai
Three experiments were conducted to determine the digestible (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) content (Exp. 1), the apparent (AID) and standardised ileal digestibility (SID) of amino acids (AA) (Exp. 2) in hulled and dehulled corn and the performance of weanling pigs fed diets containing hulled or dehulled corn (Exp. 3). In Exp. 1, 18 growing barrows (19.8 ± 0.9 kg) were fed a rice–soybean meal basal diet or two experimental diets. The two experimental diets were formulated to contain 38.6% hulled or dehulled corn which replaced 40% of the energy supplied by rice, soybean meal and lysine to determine the energy content as well as the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of nutrients and energy of hulled and dehulled corn using the difference method. There were no differences in the DE (15.9 MJ/kg vs. 16.3 MJ/kg) and ME (15.6 MJ/kg vs. 15.6 MJ/kg) content in hulled and dehulled corn, respectively, but the ATTD of dry matter (DM; 92.5% vs. 88.9%) and organic matter (OM; 93.9% vs. 89.8%) were higher in dehulled corn than hulled corn (p < 0.01). In Exp. 2, 24 growing barrows (28.0 ± 1.6 kg) were fitted with a T-cannula in the distal ileum, allotted to one of the four diets with six pigs fed each diet. The four diets comprised of the basal diet and the two experimental diets from Exp. 1 as well as a nitrogen-free diet that was used to measure the basal endogenous losses of crude protein (CP) and AA. Results from Exp. 2 indicate that there is no improvement of the AID or SID of CP and AA in dehulled corn compared with hulled corn. In Exp. 3, 72 piglets weaned at the age of 35 d (8.3 ± 1.2 kg) were allotted to two diets based on hulled or dehulled corn and formulated to contain equal quantities of ME and SID of AA. The ATTD of DM, OM and gross energy were higher (p < 0.01) in pigs fed diets containing dehulled corn than those fed diets containing hulled corn. However, performance of pigs fed diets containing hulled or dehulled corn was not different. In conclusion, dehulled corn increased nutrient digestibility, but did not improve pig performance. Therefore, there does not appear to be any justification for the routine inclusion of dehulled corn in diets fed to weaned pigs.
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