The effects of level of maize gluten feed in the diet on pig performance and carcass quality

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Abstract
Diets containing 0, 100, 200 or 300 g/kg of maize gluten feed were formulated, using standard tables of ingredient values, to have similar levels of digestible energy (12·9 MJ/kg) and lysine (8·9 g/kg). Each diet was scale fed to four pens of eight pigs, entire males and females, from 37 kg until slaughter at about 85 kg.There were no problems with diet palatability and no significant differences in live-weight gain, food conversion efficiency or killing-out proportion. With increasing maize gluten feed, dietary lysine increased (8·5, 8·6, 8·9, 9·0 g/kg) and backfat thickness decreased (P1 + P3 = 28·6, 27·2, 25·5, 24·9 mm, P < 0·05). Fat samples were taken from the last rib position on each side of all carcasses. With increasing maize gluten inclusion the fat (inner layer) became darker (P < 0·001) and yellower (P < 0·05). Increasing maize gluten feed also increased levels of linoleic acid (170·4, 195·8, 224·8, 247·7 g/kg total fatty acids; P < 0·001) indicating that progressively softer fat would be produced. The results show that inclusion rates of maize gluten feed up to 300 g/kg did not adversely influence pig performance or carcass characteristics but the appearance and keeping quality of the fat might be adversely affected by higher levels.