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Garlic and dandelion have been reported to contain bioactive constituents with multifarious properties including antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, and prebiotic activity, which exert a positive effect on the health and productivity of animals. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the hypothesis that dietary supplementation of lyophilised garlic or dandelion root powder or their combination have beneficial effects on the performance, carcass traits, and fatty acid composition in chosen tissues of growing-finishing pigs. For that purpose, a total of 80 crossbred pigs (Polish Landrace x Large White) x Duroc with an initial weight of 25.0 ± 0.5 kg were assigned into one of 4 dietary treatments with 5 replicate pens per treatment and 4 pigs per pen (2 gilts and 2 barrows). Four dietary treatments were designed: (i) a control fed conventional diet or C; (ii) a supplemented diet with 5 g/kg of lyophilised garlic or G; (iii) a supplemented diet with 50 g/kg of dandelion root powder or D; and (iv) a combination of G and D, with both phytobiotics or GD. The experimental diets were fed for a 95-day long trial.
As a result, the G and GD treatments showed an improved performance and a reduced content of fat and cholesterol levels in backfat, longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle, and liver when compared to the control treatment. The addition of phytobiotics (G, D, and GD treatments) decreased the SFA content in the backfat and increased the content of PUFA, including n-6 PUFA. The GD treatment also increased the loin eye area and lean meat yield. Moreover, in the GD treatment, the fat of LL and liver exhibited a better n-6/n-3 ratio than the control.
In conclusion, the supplementation of the lyophilised garlic and its combined administration with dandelion root powder enhanced growth performance and improved carcass traits and the fatty acid composition. These additives also exerted beneficial effects on the cholesterol content in the meat, backfat, and liver and reduced the atherogenic indices in the fat. These results suggest that the combined addition of garlic (5 g/kg) and dandelion root powder (50 g/kg) was the most efficient in increasing the growth performance, carcass quality traits, and some indices of nutritional fat quality.
Samolinska, W., Grela, E. R., Kowalczuk-Vasilev, E., Kiczorowska, B., Klebaniuk, R., & Hanczakowska, E. (2020). Evaluation of garlic and dandelion supplementation on the growth performance, carcass traits, and fatty acid composition of growing-finishing pigs. Animal Feed Science and Technology, 259, 114316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2019.114316
