Effects of dietary supplementation of diacylglycerol on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, fecal noxious gas emission, and hematology parameters in weaned piglets

Abstract

A total of 120 21-day-old weaned piglets ((Yorkshire × Landrace) × Duroc) were used to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of diacylglycerol (DAG) on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, fecal noxious gas emission, and hematology parameters in a 42-day experiment. All pigs were randomly assigned to three groups based on the initial body weight (6.47 ± 0.45 kg). There were eight replicate pens per treatment and five pigs (three barrows and two gilts) per pen. The DAG in the levels of 0%, 0.05%, or 0.10% was used as supplement to the corn–soybean meal-based basal diet. Piglets fed the diet supplemented with graded levels of DAG linearly increased the average daily gain (ADG) during days 22–42 ( P = 0.027) and 1–42 ( P = 0.048). In addition, a tendency in the linear reduction of fecal ammonia ( P = 0.095), hydrogen sulfide ( P = 0.078), and methyl mercaptan ( P = 0.085) emission was observed by increasing the DAG levels in the diet. However, feeding pigs with DAG-containing diet had no significant effects on the nutrient digestibility and hematology parameters. Therefore, the suitable dose of DAG used in the diet of weaned piglets was at 0.10% to improve ADG and reduce fecal gas emission.