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During the pelleting process, feed is exposed to heat, moisture, pressure and mechanical forces, mainly during steam conditioning and its passage through the pellet die. These factors modify the physical and chemical properties of the feed and can ultimately affect how nutrients are digested by pigs.
Objective: This study evaluated whether the thickness of the pellet die influences the digestibility of crude protein and amino acids in commercial diets fed to growing pigs.
Methods: To do so, pigs were fed either a mash diet or pelleted diets produced using pellet dies of increasing thickness. All pelleted diets were manufactured under the same processing conditions to ensure that differences observed were specifically related to pellet die characteristics.
Results: The results showed that pelleting improved the digestibility of protein and several amino acids compared to mash feed, but this effect depended on pellet die thickness. Diets produced using medium and thick pellet dies generally resulted in higher amino acid digestibility than those produced with thinner dies or fed as mash. However, not all amino acids responded in the same way, indicating that some are more sensitive than others to processing conditions.
Conclusion: Overall, these findings suggest that the nutritional benefits of pelleting are not only related to the process itself, but also to specific technical parameters such as pellet die thickness. Optimizing these conditions could therefore help improve nutrient utilization in growing pigs.
Lopez DA, Miesner MD, Gebhardt JT, Stark CR, Stein HH, Paulk CB. Effect of pellet die thickness on standardized ileal digestibility of amino acids when pelleting diets fed to growing pigs. Transl Anim Sci. 2025. Dec 13; 10: txaf163. doi: 10.1093/tas/txaf163