Lowell, J. E., Y. Liu, and H. H. Stein. 2014. Comparative digestibility of energy and nutrients in feed ingredients fed to sows and growing pigs. J. Anim. Sci 92(E-Suppl. 2):226 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)

Navarro, D. M. D. L., Y. Liu, T. S. Bruun, and H. H. Stein. 2014. Amino acid digestibility in processed soybean products and rapeseed products fed to weanling pigs. J. Anim. Sci 92(E-Suppl. 2):221 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)

Liu, Y., Y. L. Ma, J. M. Zhao, M. Vazquez-Añón, and H. H. Stein. 2014. Digestibility and retention of zinc, copper, manganese, iron, calcium, and phosphorus in pigs fed diets containing inorganic or organic minerals. J. Anim. Sci. 92:3407-3415. Link to full text (.pdf)

Recently, the Food and Drug Administration announced that the number of antibiotic growth promoters that are available to be used by pigs will be reduced to reduce the risk of transferring antibiotic resistance from animals to humans. Only antibiotics that are not used in human medicine may be used as antibiotic growth promoters by animals in the future. To accommodate this change, it may be necessary to re-evaluate the use of antibiotic growth promoters in diets fed to pigs. It is possible that antibiotic growth promoters may be eliminated from swine diets if the complexity of the diets is increased. To test this hypothesis, an experiment was conducted to determine the effects of using an antibiotic growth promoter in diets formulated to vary in complexity.

Cervantes-Pahm, S. K. Y. Liu, A. Evans, and H. H. Stein. 2014. Effect of novel fiber ingredients on ileal and total tract digestibility of energy and nutrients in semi-purified diets fed to growing pigs. J. Sci. Food Agric. 94:1284-1290. Link to full text (.pdf)

Cervantes-Pahm, S. K., Y. Liu, and H. H. Stein. 2014. Comparative digestibility of energy and nutrients and fermentability of dietary fiber in eight cereal grains fed to pigs. J. Sci. Food Agric. 94:841–849. Link to full text (.pdf)

The carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua) is an evergreen native to the Mediterranean area. Its fruit, technically a legume, consists of leathery brown pods that contain hard brown seeds in a sweet pulp. The pods can be crushed, with or without the seeds, to produce a meal that is fed to animals. Because carob pod meal contains 40-45% sugars, it promotes feed intake and adds energy to the diet. Carob pods also contain tannins. As inclusion rates of carob pod meal increase, the tannins can inhibit nutrient digestibility, which limits carob inclusion in swine diets. However, at lower inclusion rates, carob pod meal can reduce the incidence of diarrhea in weanling pigs due to the tannins' effect on the intestinal mucosa.

Caromic 105 is a deseeded, toasted, micronized carob pod meal product. An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of Caromic 105 on growth performance of weanling pigs.

Soybean meal is the most common source of protein in swine diets in the United States. However, conventional soybean meal contains antinutritional factors such as antigenic proteins, oligosaccharides, lectins, and trypsin inhibitors that limit its use in diets fed to weanling pigs. Methods of processing soybean meal to remove antinutritional factors have been developed. These include enzyme treatment, fermentation, and the removal of soluble carbohydrates.

Like soybean meal, rapeseed products are usually not fed to weanling pigs due to the presence of glucosinolates and relatively high concentrations of fiber in these products. Previous research has shown that fermentation of soybean meal can reduce antinutritional factors and fiber concentrations. It is possible that fermentation can make 00-rapeseed meals and 00-rapeseed expellers suitable for feeding to weanling pigs, but no research has been conducted to confirm this hypothesis. An experiment was conducted to determine the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) by weanling pigs of crude protein and amino acids in four sources of processed soybean products, conventional soybean meal, conventional 00-rapeseed expellers, and in a fermented mixture of co-products including 00-rapeseed expellers, wheat bran, potato peel, and soy molasses.

Petersen, G. I., Y. Liu, and H. H. Stein. 2014. Coefficient of standardized ileal digestibility of amino acids in corn, soybean meal, corn gluten meal, high-protein distillers dried grains, and field peas fed to weanling pigs (Short communication). Anim. Feed Sci. Technol. 188:145-149. Link to full text (.pdf)