DIETARY LAURIC ACID SUPPLEMENTATION IN LARGE WHITE YORKSHIRE CROSS PIGLETS AND ITS EFFECT ON PRODUCTION AND HEALTH
2024
G.G. Marsha | M. Venkateswarlu | G. Alexander | M. Hanumanth Rao | B. Ekambaram | S. Parashuramulu
An experiment (97 days) was conducted to investigate the dietary lauric acid (LA) supplementation on performance, digestibility and faecal microflora counts in Large White Yorkshire cross piglets. A basal diet was (BD) prepared as a negative control without supplementation and a positive control with an antibiotic (chlortetracycline at 0.05%) supplementation (BDA). Another two diets were prepared by supplementing LA at 0.2 and 0.4% levels to the basal diet. Dietary inclusion of LA or antibiotic significantly (P<0.01) improved the body weight and feed efficiency and recorded highest (P<0.01) body weights with 0.4% LA, while lowest (P<0.01) weight gain with control group. Significantly higher FCR (P<0.01) was observed in LA fed animals and the lowest (P<0.01) was recorded in the BD and BDA groups. The improved (P<0.05) digestibility of organic matter, crude fiber, ether extract and nitrogen free extract was observed with 0.4% LA. The faecal total bacterial count and E.coli count were lowered (P<0.01) with LA supplementation, while highest count was observed in control group. Hence, it was concluded that, supplementation of LA at 0.2 to 0.4 % in the diets of LWY piglets showed increased weight gain, feed efficiency and nutrient digestibility by reducing faecal microflora count in LWY piglets.
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