Influence of different inclusion levels of corn dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) in the diet of growing pigs on the digestibility of nutrients

Gancho Ganchev, Atanas Ilchev and Krum Nedelkov

Abstract: The objective of this study was to determine the total tract digestibility coefficients of growing pigs fed diets with different inclusion levels of corn dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) produced in Bulgaria. Four castrated male pigs from the Danube White breed with an average body weight of 16 ± 0.3 kg, housed in individual metabolic cages, were used in the digestibility experiment. Four different diets were examined: 1) a basal diet (100 corn), consisting mainly of corn, (96.25% corn and 3.75% vitamins and minerals); 2) 60/40 DDGS diet, in which DDGS was included at 40%; 3) 40/60 DDGS diet, in which DDGS was included at 60%, and 4) DDGS based diet (100 DDGS), consisting mainly of corn DDGS (97.5% DDGS and 2.5% vitamins and minerals). The apparent total tract digestibility coefficients of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ether extracts (EE), crude fibers (CF), and nitrogen free extract (NFE) were determined. Increasing the inclusion level of DDGS in the rations of growing pigs significantly reduced the digestibility coefficients of the main nutrients - CP, EE, and NFE, but did not affect the digestibility of CF.

Keywords: corn; corn DDGS; digestibility; growing pigs

Date published: 2020-12-15