Effect of lecithin with or without chitooligosaccharide on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood metabolites and pork quality of finishing pigs

[Nutrimail]

Chitooligosaccharide (COS) is a water-soluble oligosaccharide made from chitin or chitosan by chemical or enzymatic decomposing methods. It was hypothesized that lecithin either alone or in combination with COS may influence the performance, pork quality and its composition in finishing pigs. Hence, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary lecithin with or without COS on the growth performance, apparent nutrient digestibility, blood metabolites, pork cholesterol, fatty acid composition and pork quality of finishing pigs.

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary lecithin with or without COS on the performance, blood metabolites, pork cholesterol, fatty acid composition and quality of finishing pigs. In Exp. 1, 36 pigs (Landrace x Yorkshire x Duroc, 84.5±0.60 kg initial body weight) were allotted to three dietary treatments with four pen replicates in each, and comprised three pigs per replicate. Lecithin was added to replace animal fat (tallow) at 0, 2.5 or 5.0% of the diet. Experiment 2 involved 108 pigs (85.0±0.76 kg initial body weight) in a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of treatments, wherein two levels of lecithin (low, 2.5 and high, 5.0%) and COS (0.0 and 0.1%) were used. In both experiments, the pigs were housed in partially slotted and concrete floor pens of 2.5 m x 2.5 m and 3.0 m x 2.8 m in exps. 1 and 2, respectively. Pens were provided with a self-feeder and nipple waterer to allow ad libitum access to feed and water.

Lecithin improved average daily gain (16%) and feed conversion ratio, and did not affect apparent nutrient digestibility. On day 28, lecithin decreased serum total and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (34 and 77%, P=0.016), and increased serum triglyceride (P=0.048). Lecithin did not affect carcass characteristics and pork quality, but increased myristic and alinolenic acid and reduced palmitoleic acid in pork. Addition of COS in diets containing lecithin reduced pork cholesterol (16.4%) and oleic acid (28.3%), and did not affect performance, nutrient digestibility, blood metabolites and pork quality.

These results suggest that lecithin improved the growth performance of finishing pigs and inclusion of COS reduced the amount of cholesterol in pork.

tags: nutrition performance meat quality pork

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