Evaluation of distillers dried grains with solubles to partially replace soybean meal in the diet of growing-finishing pigs

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation with increasing levels of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and carcass quality of growing-finishing pigs. The experiment was divided into 2 phases (Grower and Finisher) in a 16-week trial. A total of 120 [(Landrace × Yorkshire) × Duroc] growing pigs (BW; 22.02 ± 0.08 kg) were randomly assigned to control (CON) and treatment diets (TRT): CON – basal diet, DDGS 4% for growing pigs and 6% for finishing pigs; TRT1 – DDGS 10% for growing pigs and 12% for finishing pigs and TRT2 – DDGS 15% for growing and finishing pigs. Increasing dietary DDGS supplementation did not cause significant linear or quadratic responses in average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Furthermore, DDGS inclusion did not result in linear or quadratic effects on the digestibility of dry matter (DM), nitrogen (N), and digestible energy (E). Backfat thickness (BFT) tended to decrease (quadratic, P = 0.057) at week 16, whereas lean meat percentage (LMP) was unaffected by increasing DDGS levels in the diets. Thus, the addition of increasing DDGS levels (4–15%) to the basal diet showed no adverse effect on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and positively affected carcass quality of growing-finishing pigs, suggesting that DDGS (4–15%) inclusion exerted comparable effects to soybean meal, i.e. the main source of protein, thereby reducing feed cost.