ABSTRACT


José Pokniak1, Sergio Cornejo1 y Mario Bonacic2.
 

An experiment was conducted to evaluate, under field conditions, the addition of fresh sweet whey (FSW) to a concentrate finishing swine diet, and the psossible related digestive pathologies. Thirty pigs (Landrace x Large White x Duroc), with an initial weight of 52 Kg, were randomly assigned to 3 treatments: I. Control: concentrate; II. Concentrate and FSW 1:1 weight/volume; III. Concentrate and FSW 1:3 weight/volume.
Clinical conditions and group feed consumption were daily controlle. he animals were weighted weekly. No scours were observed related to the FSW addition. The average daily gains (ADG) were: 526 g; 657 g and 764 g, the means differed significantly among them (p<0.01); daily dry matter (DDM) consumptions were 2.21; 2.55 and 2.83 kg, and feed efficiencies (FE) were: 4.21; 3.87 and 3.70; all this for treatments I, II and III, respectively.
The bes performance (ADG and FE) observed in treatments II and III were associated to a greater DM intake and possibly to the nutritive support of the FSW. The latter could be detected by the efficiency of protein utilization (daily protein g/ADG) and digestible energy (DE) CONVERTION (DAILY de Kcal/ADG): 0.62, 0.57 and 0.54, and 15.4, 14.2 and 13.0, for treaments I, II and III, respectively. From the data collected it can be concluded that the inclusion of FSW in finishing diets increases ADG and Fe and that it is an alternative that can be used when the availability of FSW is suitable.

Keywords:
1Méds. Vets., M.S., División de Nutrición Animal, Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 15138, Santiago, Chile.
2Méd. Vet. Departamento de Zootecnia y Economía Pecuaria, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 13, Correo 15, Santiago, Chile.