Comparison of the effects of dark and yellow rapeseed hulls, soybean hulls and a purified fiber source on growth, feed consumption and digestibility of dietary components in starter pigs

Abstract

A trial involving a total of 56 weanling pigs was conducted to investigate the effects of including dark (Tower) and yellow (R500) rapeseed hulls, soybean hulls and a purified fiber source (Celufil) as l}Vo of the diets of starter pigs. The animals were offered the experimental diets from 5 to 9 wk of age. The pigs fed on the R500 hull diet had lower (P<0.05) average weight gain (273 glday) and feed consumptron (481 g/day) values than those fed rhe orher diets, which ranged from 400 to 466 gl day and from 755 to 882 g/day, respectively. The feed efficiency (gain:feed) values were similar for all dietary treatments with values ranging from 0.53 to 0.57. The lower feed consumption observed for the R500 hull diet was suspected to be due to poor palatability of these hulls probably caused by some hydrolytic products of glucosinolates. The dry matter, energy and protein digestibility coefficients for both iapeseed hull diers were similaf . The R500 rapeseed hull diet had higher (P<0.05) digestibility values for dry matter, energy and protein than the soybean hull diet while the Tower rapeseed and soybean hull diets had similar digestibility values for rhese components. The Celufil diet had similar dry matter and energy digestibility values with the SBH diet but the protein digestibility value for Celufil was higher (P<0.05) than rhat of the soybean hull diet and similar to those of the rapeseed hull diets. The crude fiber digestibility values were similar for all diets.