Influence of different inclusion levels of wheat dried distillers grains with soluble (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 wheat dried distillers grains with soluble (wDDGS) produced in Bulgaria. Four castrated male pigs from the Danube White breed with an average body weight of 34 ± 0.82 kg, housed in individual metabolic cages, were used in the digestibility experiment. Four different diets were examined: 1) a basal diet (100 wheat), consisting mainly of wheat (96.7% wheat and 3.3% 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 wheat DDGS (97.85% DDGS and 2.15% vitamins and minerals). The apparent total tract digestibility coefficients of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), crude fibers (CF), and nitrogen-free extracts (NFE) were determined. By increasing wheat DDGS in the rations of growing pigs, a significant reduction in digestibility coefficients of the main nutrients (CP, EE, CF, and NFE) was observed.

Keywords: digestibility; growing pigs; wheat; wheat DDGS

Date published: 2022-06-16