THE EFFECTS OF REPLACING SKIM MILK POWDER AND/OR WHEY WITH REFINED FISH PROTEIN CONCENTRATE (CONMAR 80) IN CREEP AND WEANER STARTER DIETS ON PIG PERFORMANCE

Abstract

A series of trials was conducted to investigate the effects of Conmar 80 (80% CP), a new commercial hexane-extracted fish meal, as a protein source in creep and weaner-starter diets. Eight dietary treatments, comparable in composition except for the protein source, were offered in three experiments to 112 litters and 44 Yorkshire piglets. The first two trials were designed to compare piglet performance, during the suckling and early-weaning period when Conmar 80 was included as part of the creep diet or the starter diet protein. The third trial was designed to study the digestibility of increasing levels of Conmar 80 as a protein source in the weaner ration of 70-d old barrows. The results of this study indicate that piglet performance was not adversely affected when Conmar 80 was substituted at 3.5–5.0% of the creep diet or when Conmar 80 was used as the sole animal protein source in the starter diet. The digestibility of dry matter and crude protein was 85.6 ± 0.05% and 85.1 ± 0.24%; 74.7 ± 0.14% and 73.6 ± 0.53% when Conmar 80 was substituted in the weaner ration at the 5% and the 10% level respectively. The digestible energy was 13.5 ± 0.01 and 13.4 ± 0.04 MJ kg−1, respectively. It is concluded that Conmar 80 can satisfactorily be included to replace 14.5–22.0% of the dietary protein in pig creep and weaner feeds. Key words: Conmar 80, fish meal, swine, creep diets, weaner diets