Interactions between weaning age, weaning weight, sex, and enzyme supplementation on growth performance of pigs

Abstract

Digestive capacity of early-weaned pigs may be insufficient to fully digest many ingredients currently used in weaner diets. Ihe aim of this experiment was to determine whether an exogenous enzyme preparation with broad carbohydrase activity could benefit pigs that developmentally might be immature at weaning, especially with regard to gastrointestinal development. Eighty Large White x Landrace pigs were used in a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment with the factors being: weaning age (14 or 24 days), weaning weight (heavy or light), sex (boar or gilt), and dietary Biofeed Plus CT (0 or 500 μg/g), which contained fungal xylanases, pentosanases, and β-glucanases. Pigs were housed individually ..