PSI-17 - The impact of an organic acid blend in low and high fiber finishing pig diets on swine growth performance and carcass quality

Abstract: Previous research has shown that organic acids can improve the digestibility of high fiber diets, specifically NDF digestibility. Ambitine (Fortiva) is a blend of acidifiers and plant extracts designed to improve feed efficiency in late finishing pigs. The objective of this trial was to evaluate the effect of Ambitine on late finishing growth performance and carcass composition when supplemented in high fiber and low fiber diets. High Fiber diets were formulated with 20% DDGS, 0.68 SID lysine, and metabolizable energy of 3322 kcal/kg. Low fiber diets were formulated without DDGS, but with the same SID lysine and SID Lysine:Metabolizable energy as the high fiber diets. The pigs were housed in mixed gender pens with 19 pigs per pen and 15 replicates per treatment. With pen as the experimental unit, 1133 pigs with an average initial body weight of 108 kg were allotted to 1 of 4 dietary treatments. These treatments included the high fiber control diet (HF), low fiber control diet (LF), High fiber diet with Ambitine (HFA), and low fiber diet with Ambitine (LFA). Body weight and feed disappearance was measured on day 0, 21, and 35 with corresponding ADG, ADFI, and F:G calculated for each phase. First cuts were made on day 21 where the heaviest half of pigs from each pen were marketed. On day 35 the remaining pigs in the pen were marketed and carcass quality measurements were collected. Data were analyzed using the mixed procedure in SAS (SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC) and the model included treatment, fiber treatment, Ambitine treatment, block, block*treatment and replicate. During period 1, there were no significant differences in BW, ADG, or ADFI between the four treatments. However, when comparing the effects of Ambitine alone in period 1, there was a trend (P=0.07) for Ambitine to improve F:G (3.24 vs 3.31). Fiber alone had no significant impact on BW, ADG, ADFI, or F:G, this was likely due to the fact that we matched SID lysine and both the high fiber and low fiber basal diets had similar energy levels. During period 2, there were no significant differences between any of the 4 treatments on any of the growth performance metrics. When comparing the carcass quality measurements, the high fiber treatments had a significantly (P< 0.05) lower percent yield and smaller (P=0.07) fat depth compared to the low fiber treatments. Overall, Ambitine improved feed efficiency before the first cut, and this improvement was independent of fiber level in the diet.