Effects of sugar beet pulp on growth and health status of weaned piglets

The effects on growth performance and on some health parameters due to the inclusion of sugar beet pulp in antibioticfree diets for weaned piglets were evaluated on a commercial farm. A conventional diet (C) and one containing 120 g/kg of sugar beet pulp (SBP) were fed to 668 weaned piglets from 21 to 64±3 days of age. Every two weeks, live weight and feed consumption (FC) of the two groups were recorded by pens. Fecal samples were collected from 8 pairs of piglets for each treatment to evaluate the evolution over the time of the apparent digestibility of the nutrients, as well as the volatile fatty acids content and the microbial count in the feces. The dietary treatment did not affect FC. In comparison to C, SBP slightly reduced average daily gain over 36 to 49 (528 vs. 498 g/d; P<0.05) and 50 to 64±3 (677 vs. 631 g/d, respectively; P<0.01) days of age. Digestibility of NDF of diet C increased with age from 441 to 526 g/kg whereas that of diet SBP increased from 465 to 638 g/kg. The differences between diets became significant after 36 days of age (P<0.01). From 29 to 35 days of age higher contents of water (793 vs. 713 g/kg; P<0.01), acetic (322 vs. 206 μmol/g dm; P<0.01) propionic (108 vs. 81 μmol/kg dm; P<0.01) acids and lower counts for fecal-coliforms (6.9 vs. 8.2 log10/g; P<0.01), clostridia (1.3 vs. 2.3 log10/g; P<0.01) and Staphylococcus spp. (6.7 vs. 8.1 log10/g; P<0.01) were found in the feces of the SBP piglets compared to those of C. These differences progressively disappeared with time. Some piglets showed clinical signs of purulent arthritis and meningitis, but no signs of diarrhea were observed. The SBP group showed, with respect to C, a significantly lower number of piglet deaths caused by meningitis (15 vs. 30 ‰, respectively; χ2, P<0.05), and a significantly lower number of piglets removed because lack of growth (33 vs. 76 ‰, respectively; χ2, P<0.01). No clear evidence to explain this result was found, however it was concluded that the inclusion of 12% of sugar beet pulp in antibiotic-free diets can improve the health status of piglets with little effect on growth performance.