Impact of 100% organic diets on pig performance, carcass composition and carcass nutrient deposition efficiency

Abstract

The ultimate objective of organic pig production is to use ingredients of 100% organic origin in the animals’ diets. However, this approach is challenging, especially when needing to ensure adequate quantities of essential amino acids (EAAs) and protein in grower-finisher diets. The current standard is 95% organic feed ingredients, but this percentage can be increased by reducing the EAA supply or by accepting an unbalanced EAA profile. A further incentive also exists to include forages in organic diets as a way to raise dietary crude fibre content. The current study therefore investigates three organic diets (T95: 5% of non-organic origin; T100: 0% of non-organic origin and T100-CF: T100 plus an increased crude fibre level), which were offered ad libitum to 48 pigs (16 per diet) weighing 22 to 110 kg. Comparison of the three diets revealed that increasing the crude fibre content (T100-CF) reduced growth, increased total feed intake and impaired feed and protein deposition efficiency, but the unbalanced EAA profile (T100) had no effect on growth traits and protein deposition efficiency. The T100 and T100-CF pigs differed from the T95 pigs in terms of feeding behaviour traits, as they displayed more frequent but shorter feeder visits, shorter between-meal intervals and smaller meals. Increasing the fibre content with press cake ingredients raised the degree of unsaturation of the backfat and might cause problems in meat processing. In conclusion, the results revealed that pigs could cope with a mild EAA imbalance.