Low glucosinolate full-fat rapeseed meal in the diets of early-weaned piglets

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe potential of using low glucosinolate full-fat rapeseed meal (FFR) in the diets of early-weaned piglets was investigated in this experiment. FFR (containing 17 (xmol total glucosinolates and 2·8 mg erucic acid per g of whole seed) was used on an isonitrogenous basis at either 200 g<kg or 400 g<kg to replace full-fat soya-bean meal. Four replicates of three contemporary pen groups of 10 piglets weaned between 3 and 4 weeks of age were randomly allocated at a mean initial weight of 8·41 (s.e. 1·105) kg to the three dietary treatments. The experimental diets were given for 3 weeks. Inclusion of FFR significantly depressed food intake, daily live-weight gain and food conversion. There were no significant differences between the performance of piglets given either 200 or 400 g FFR per kg. Intakes of the diets containing FFR per unit of metabolic body weight as a proportion of the control diet decreased from about 0·85 to 0·75 from the 1st to the last week of the feeding period. This suggested that the acceptability of diets containing FFR decreased with time, possibly due to the presence of unpalatable and perhaps antinutritive factors which may include glucosinolates although present at relatively low concentrations. It was concluded that the feeding value of FFR would need to be improved by development of oilseed rape varieties with much lower levels of glucosinolates.