Digesta characteristics, nutrient flow and digestibility in pigs fed diets with growing levels of soluble or insoluble dietary fiber

Abstract

This Project aims to evaluate diets with different types and levels of total dietary fiber in barrows feeding, in a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement + 1, as follows: 2 levels of dietary fiber (26 or 35%), 2 sources of fiber (sugar beet pulp, rich in soluble fiber, and oat hulls, rich in insoluble fiber), and a positive control (corn soybean meal based diet). Five crossbred barrows, weighing approximately 30 kg, with a cannula in the terminal ileum, will be used in a 5 x 5 Latin square design. The parameters that will be determined and compared are: digesta retention time; digesta viscosity; digesta and feces short chain fatty acids content; apparent ileal and total tract digestibilities of dry matter, organic matter, total dietary fiber, insoluble dietary fiber, soluble dietary fiber, crude protein, and gross energy; ileal digesta flow of nutrients and energy; fecal output of nutrients; post-ileal nutrient and energy digestion. Data will be submitted to analysis of variance, using the mixed procedure of SAS, and means comparisons will be performed by the Dunnet test (5%). (AU)