Effect of dietary microencapsulated organic acid and essential oil on sow performance and nursery piglet growth performance and fecal bacteria

Abstract

The effect of feed supplementation with microencapsulated organic acids and essential oils (MOE, Porcinate+) in feed was investigated according to sow and nursery pig growth performances, and fecal bacteria population. Experiment 1: healthy three hundred and twenty sows during its late gestation period (7 days before farrowing) until the weaning phase (28 days after farrowing) were randomly divided as control group (160 sows) which was fed with basal diet, and treatment group (160 sows), which was fed with basal diets supplemented with 2 kilograms (kg) of MOE in 1 ton of feed. Each of 4 replications was composed of 40 sows in control and 40 sows in treatment groups. The results showed that sow back fat (BF) thickness and body condition score (BCS) were significantly decreased during late gestation phase until weaning within groups. However, BCS and BF thickness in treatment group were significantly higher compared to the control group at wean. The percentage of shoulder ulcer and score during lactation were lower in treatment group compared to control group. Furthermore, the positive correlation between BF to BCS tends to be found (p=0.01, r=0.362). Weaned pig numbers and weight were significantly increased in the treatment group compared to the control group. Experiment 2: two thousand and eight hundred weaned pigs were randomly divided into two groups; the control group (1400 pigs) which was fed with basal feed without MOE), and the treatment group (1400 pigs) which was fed with basal feed + MOE 2 kg/1 ton between 28 - 42 days old, and basal feed + MOE 1 kg/1 ton between 43 - 56 days old, respectively. The outcome revealed that average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were statistically better in treatment than control groups. At the beginning and middle of the experiment, average number of coliform bacteria, E. coli, and Lactobacillus spp. in feces, including L/T and L/C ratios tended to have no significant difference between treatment than control groups. However, at the end of experiment (56 days of age), all bacterial population of both groups seemed to be statistically different, except the L/T and L/C ratios. In conclusion, feed supplementation with microencapsulated citric, fumaric, malic, and sorbic acid as organic acid mixture and eugenol, thymol, and vanillin as essential oil mixture offers better sow performance, increasing weaning pig weight gain and feed efficiency.