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An experiment was conducted with 272, 26 day old piglets, which were allotted into one of the four dietary treatments, arranged in a factorial design: two CP levels (low 15%, and high 22%), combined with low (7.5%) or high (13.4%) FC content. Piglets were fed the dietary treatments for 28 days, and performance controls were done during the experience. Digestibility was studied on day 7, and 8 piglets per treatment were slaughtered, in order to collect digest samples in which fermentation parameters and microbial populations were studied. Moreover, morphometric studies were carried out in the small intestinal segments.
Results showed that performance of the animals was affected by the dietary treatments, indicating that increasing the FC in the low CP diets decreased the feed intake and the daily gain. On the contrary, with a high CP diet the increase in the FC did not provoke modifications. Modifications in the bacteriology and fermentation pattern were found between the dietary treatments, no interactions were found. Decreasing the CP content of the diet did only result in a lowered ammonia concentration in the ileum. In the case of increases of FC results showed that it may increase the number of lactobacilli and to lowered the number of coliforms, also provoking a higher content of volatile fatty acids in the caecum. No modifications in the morphometric parameters measured were found in this study.
Bikker, P., Dirkzwager, A., Fledderus, J., Trevisi, P., le Huërou-Luron, I., Lallès, J.P., Awati, A. (2006) Journal of Animal Science, 84: 3337-3345
