Effect of a dietary probiotic blend on performance, blood characteristics, meat quality and faecal microbial shedding in growing-finishing pigs

Abstract

The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of a dietary probiotic blend on growth performance, blood characteristics, meat quality, and faecal microbial population in growing-finishing pigs in a 12-week experiment. Pigs were assigned to two dietary treatments: a control basal-diet without probiotic blend (No-Pro) and a test-diet including the probiotic blend (Pro) according to pig bodyweight (BW) at the dose of 100 mg/kg of BW. Pigs fed the probiotics had higher final BW and increased average daily gain (ADG), as well as improved feed conversion ratio (FCR). Blood parameters of pigs were not affected by dietary probiotic complex. Meat crude protein and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) contents were increased in the group fed probiotics, whereas there were no significant differences in the other meat traits. Feeding of probiotics determined a decrease in faecal NH3-N (+15.5%) and butyric acid concentrations, whereas no effects were observed on faecal acetic acid and propionic acid. An increased faecal Lactobacillus concentration was found when pigs fed probiotic blend. Based on our findings, feeding probiotic blend enhanced growth performance and meat quality in growing-finishing pigs, and also decreased faecal NH3-N and butyric acid levels resulting in a viable approach to reduce animal excreta pollution.

Keywords: Diet, growth, pig, probiotics