Effects of adaptation time and inclusion level of sugar beet pulp on nutrient digestibility and evaluation of ileal amino acid digestibility of sugar beet pulp fed to growing pigs.

Objective: Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of adaptation time and inclusion level of sugar beet pulp (SBP) on nutrient digestibility and to evaluate the ileal AA digestibility of SBP fed to pigs.

Methods: In Exp. 1, thirty-six crossbred barrows (85.0 ± 2.1 kg) were allotted to 6 diets in a completely randomized design with six replicates per diet. Diets included a corn-soybean meal diet and 5 test diets containing 14.6, 24.4, 34.2, 43.9, or 53.7% SBP, respectively. The adaptation time consisted 7, 14, 21, or 28 d consecutively for each pig followed by 5 d for fecal collection. Feces were collected from d 8 to 13, d 15 to 20, d 22 to 27, and d 29 to 34, respectively. In Exp. 2, six pigs (35.1 ± 1.7 kg) with T-cannulas at the terminal ileum were fed to 3 diets in a replicated 3×3 Latin square design with 3 periods and 2 replicate pigs per diet. Each period consisted 5 d for diet adaptation followed by 2 d for digesta collection.

Results: The DE value and the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of GE, DM, ash, and OM in diets linearly decreased (p<0.05) as the adaptation time increased or as the dietary SBP increased, while the ATTD of NDF and ADF in diets linearly increased (p<0.01) as the dietary SBP increased. The DE value and the ATTD of GE and CP in SBP linearly increased (p<0.05) as the adaptation time increased, while the ATTD of CP in SBP linearly decreased (p<0.01) as the inclusion level increased. The SID of Lys, Met, Thr, and Trp in SBP was 37.03, 51.62, 40.68, and 46.22%, respectively.

Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the ATTD of energy and nutrients were decreased as inclusion rate of SBP increased.