Growth performance of weanling pigs fed diets with spray-dried bovine plasma or hydrolyzed spray-dried bovine plasma

Spray-dried plasma protein is commonly used in weanling diets due its functional components and high concentration of digestible amino acids. Hydrolyzed spray-dried bovine plasma (H-SDBP) is a new source of spray-dried plasma protein that may be used as a protein source in diets for weanling pigs. There are, however, no data to demonstrate the efficacy of this novel source. Pigs fed diets spray-dried plasma protein have increased growth performance when exposed to a challenge model; therefore, it is possible that H-SDBP improves performance of challenged pigs similarly as other sources of spray-dried plasma protein. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that dietary inclusion of H-SDBP is as effective as spray-dried bovine plasma (SDBP) in increasing growth performance of weanling pigs housed in uncleaned pens.

Experimental design

A 2-phase feeding program was used with day 1 to 14 as phase 1 and day 15 to 42 as phase 2. For phase 1 diets, a basal diet was formulated based on corn, soybean meal, and soy protein concentrate (SPC). Two additional diets were formulated by adding 2.5 or 5.0% SDBP to the diets at the expense of SPC. In addition, 2 diets were formulated by adding 2.8 or 5.6% H-SDBP to the diets at the expense of SPC. A common phase-2 diet was also formulated. Vitamins and minerals were included in all diets to meet or exceed current nutritional requirement estimates of weanling pigs. During phase 1, 240 weaned pigs (6.52 ± 0.97 kg) were allotted to one of the five dietary treatments. All pigs were fed a common diet in phase 2. There were 12 replicate pens per treatment with 4 pigs per pen for a total of 60 pens. Pigs were placed in uncleaned pens using a sanitation challenge model and pens remained uncleaned throughout the experiment. The uncleaned pens are non-sanitized pens which were neither disinfected nor cleaned after previous occupation by pigs. Individual pig weights and feed left in the feeders were weighed and recorded at the beginning of the experiment, on day 7, day 14, day 28, and at the conclusion of the experiment (day 42).

Results

From day 1 to 14, fully replacing SPC with SDBP or H-SDBP increased (P < 0.05) average daily gain (ADG), gain to feed ratio (G:F), and body weight of pigs (Table 1). During this period, linear (P < 0.01) increases in ADG, G:F, and body weight of pigs were also observed as dietary concentrations of SDBP increased. When pigs were fed the common diet from day 15 to 42, final body weight of pigs increased (linear, P < 0.05) for pigs fed SDBP or H-SDBP in phase 1. For the overall experimental period, ADG of pigs linearly increased (P < 0.05) as dietary concentration of both plasma sources increased in phase 1 diets.

Key points

Fully replacing soy protein concentrate with hydrolyzed spray-dried bovine plasma or spray-dried bovine plasma increased average daily gain, feed efficiency and final body weight of pigs housed in unsanitary conditions.
Plant protein sources (i.e., soy protein concentrate) is not as effective as plasma protein in increasing growth of pigs exposed to a sanitary challenge..
Both plasma sources are effective in increasing growth performance of pigs

Table 1. Growth performance of pigs fed experimental diets¹