Effects of dietary probiotic on growth performance, nutrients digestibility, blood characteristics and fecal noxious gas content in growing pigs

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of dietary complex probiotic (Lactobacillus acidophilus, 1.0x10(7) CFU/g; Saccharomyces cerevisae, 4.3x10(6) CFU/g; Bacillus sublilis 2.0x10(6) CFU/g) on growth performance, nutrients digestibility, blood characteristics and fecal noxious gas content in growing pigs. Ninety [(DurocxYorkshire)xLandrace] pigs with the average initial BW of 39.75+/-1.97 kg were allocated into three treatments by a randomized complete block design. There were five pens per treatment with six pigs per pen. Dietary treatments include: 1) CON (basal diet); 2) CP1 (basal diet+complex probiotic 0.1%) and 3) CP2 (basal diet+complex probiotic 0.2%). During the entire experimental period of 6 weeks, results showed that addition of complex probiotic at the level of 0.2% to diet increased ADG significantly (p<0.05). Also, digestibilities of DM and N tended to increase, however, no significant differences were observed (p>0.05). Blood characteristics (IgG, Albumin, total protein, RBC, WBC and lymphocyte) of pigs were not affected (p>0.05) by complex probiotic supplementation. Fecal NH3-N was decreased (11.8%) significantly by the addition of complex probiotic (p<0.05), but no effects were observed on fecal acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid concentrations (p>0.05). In conclusion, results in this experiment indicated that dietary complex probiotic supplementation had a positive effect on growing pigs performance and could decrease fecal NH3-N concentration.