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Soybean meal is the main protein source in livestock feed, but price fluctuations make overreliance costly. Mixed meals like rapeseed, cotton, and sunflower meal offer potential alternatives.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of mixed meal replacement of soybean meal on growth conditions, carcass traits, and meat quality of finishing pigs by partially and entirely replacing soybean meal with equal proportions of rapeseed, cotton, and sunflower meal.
Methods: Fifty-four pigs (initial weight 97.6 ± 0.3 kg) were randomly assigned to three groups, six pens per group, with three pigs per pen. The experimental groups were as follows: control group, fed corn-soybean meal type basal diet; corn-soybean mixed meal group, using equal proportions of rapeseed meal, cotton meal, and sunflower meal (3.52% each) to replace 9.06% of soybean meal in the basal diet; and corn mixed meal group, using equal proportions of rapeseed meal, cotton meal, and sunflower meal (6.46% each) to replace soybean meal in the basal diet completely.
Results: Mixed meal replacement of soybean meal did not significantly affect growth, feed intake, feed efficiency, body size, carcass traits, or meat quality. The entire replacement of soybean meal with a mixed meal resulted in a significant increase in leaf fat weight. Mixed meal substitution had no significant effect on antioxidant capacity or fatty acid composition of the longissimus thoracis. Muscle fiber diameter in the longissimus thoracis was smaller in the partial replacement group than in the complete replacement group. In addition, mixed meal replacing soybean meal did not significantly affect the expression of the longissimus thoracis muscle fiber type genes MYHC1 and MYHC2. Mixed meal replacement did not affect ACACA, FASN, or PPARG expression in the longissimus thoracis.
Conclusion: This study showed that mixed meal as an alternative to soybean meal in diets did not have significant negative effects on the growth performance and meat quality of finishing pigs. These results can help develop further mixed meals as a functional alternative feed ingredient for soybean meals in pig diets.
Liu S, He Z, Wen X, Zhan X, Hou L, Deng D, Gao K, Yang X, Cao S, Jiang Z, Wang L. Effects of Soybean Meal Substitution in Finishing Pig Diet on Carcass Traits, Meat Quality, and Muscle Antioxidant Capacity. Animals. 2025; 15(11): 1611. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15111611