Pahm, A. A., C. Pedersen, D. Simon, and H. H. Stein. 2010. A preliminary study on the length of incubation needed to maximize guanidination of lysine in distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and in pig ileal digesta. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol. 159:68-71. Link to full text (.pdf)

Kil, D. Y., T. E. Sauber, D. B. Jones, and H. H. Stein. 2010. Effect of the form of dietary fat and the concentration of dietary neutral detergent fiber on ileal and total tract endogenous losses and apparent and true digestibility of fat by growing pigs. J. Anim Sci. 88:2959-2967. Link to full text (.pdf)

Fiber digestibility is one factor in the efficiency of energy utilization in fibrous feed ingredients. Fiber can be digested via fermentation in the ileum or in the hindgut.

Fecal matter and ileal digesta from pigs fed one of 29 different diets were analyzed to measure the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of dietary fiber in different sources of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and to calculate hindgut fermentation (HGF) of dietary fiber in DDGS fed to growing pigs.

Almeida, F. N. and H. H. Stein. 2010. Finding phosphorus solutions for weaned-pig diets. Pages 24-25 in Pork Magazine, August 2010. Link to full text (.pdf)

Stein, H. H. 2010. Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and the use of phytase to address digestibility issues in pigs. In Proc. 46^th Eastern Nutr. Conf., May 12-13, 2010, Guelph, Ontario. Link to full text (.pdf)

Raw soybeans contain antinutritional factors such as trypsin inhibitors (TI) and lectins.  The production of soybean meal involves a heating step, which reduces these anti-nutritional factors. However, conventional soybean meal contains compounds which can cause digestive disturbances in weanling pigs. Soybean meal is therefore limited in pig starter diets. Other protein sources, such as fish meal, casein, and soy protein isolate, are used for young pigs.

Two new soybean products were recently introduced to the U.S. feed market.  Fermented soybean meal (FSBM) and enzyme-treated soybean meal (ESBM) are believed to have a lower concentration of antinutritional factors and a higher concentration of crude protein and amino acids than conventional soybean meal.  They are also believed to be better tolerated by young pigs. However, not much is known about the digestibility of the protein in these two products.

This experiment was conducted to compare the digestibility of amino acids in weanling pigs of FSBM, ESBM, conventional de-hulled soybean meal, fish meal, casein, and soy protein isolate.

Stein, H. H., D. N. Peters, and B. G. Kim. 2010. Effects of including raw or extruded field peas (Pisum sativum L.) in diets fed to weanling pigs. J. Sci. Food Agric. 90:1429-1436. Link to full text (.pdf)

Most corn hybrids grown in the US are genetically modified to resist certain pests or to tolerate certain herbicides. Numerous studies have been conducted to determine the nutritional value of corn that is genetically modified for pest resistance, but there are no published reports about feeding corn that has been modified for both pest resistance and insecticide tolerance to pigs. Investigation into the nutritional value of such corn is, however, warranted, because the use of crops with multiply stacked traits is rapidly increasing; approximately 35 million acres of crops with double- and triple-stacked traits were planted in the United States in 2006.

Two experiments were, therefore, conducted to determine if the nutritional value of corn grain with multiple genetically modified traits is different from that of nontransgenic corn. The hypothesis in both experiments was that pigs fed transgenic corn would not differ in growth performance or carcass characteristics from pigs fed nontransgenic corn.

Urriola, P. E., and H. H. Stein. 2010. Effects of distillers dried grains with solubles on amino acid, energy, and fiber digestibility and on hindgut fermentation of dietary fiber in a corn-soybean meal diet fed to growing pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 88:1454-1462. Link to full text (.pdf)