Effects of Dietary Fiber Level in Weaning Pig Diets on Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility and Intestinal Morphology

Insoluble dietary fiber is benefit on gut volume and morphology of the pigs. Rice hull is the by-product from rice processing that rich of dietary fiber content. The objectives of our study were to evaluate the effects of dietary fiber level from grounded rice hull on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, intestinal morphology and bacterial cell count in hindgut of weaning pigs. Thirty weaning pigs (21±3 days of age) were fed randomly with three experimental diets consisting of three levels of total Dietary Fiber (DF); 130, 140 and 150 g/kg with equal ratios of insoluble per soluble dietary fiber. On the 29th day, four pigs per treatment were euthanized for the collection of small intestinal tissue samples for morphological determination and digesta samples were collected for microbial counts. For digestibility determination, 12 weaned pigs were used to determine nutrient digestibility. The Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) pigs at Week 1 was improved, however, there was overall no significant difference for growth performance and diarrhea incidence among the groups. The nutrient digestibility of energy and protein did not differ among treatments, whereas the digestibility of crude fat and fiber tended to increase (P = 0.082 and 0.074). Increasing of dietary fiber level tended to increase villus height and enhance villus height per crypt depth ratio (VH:CD) of ileum (VH:CD ratio were 1.94, 2.10 and 2.35 in pigs fed 130, 140 and 150 g/kg dietary fiber diets respectively; P = 0.062). The bacterial count in the gut content was not affected by dietary fiber level. In conclusion, the dietary fiber level between 130 to150 g/kg was not altering overall growth performance nutrient digestibility, intestinal morphology intestinal bacteria population. However, the dietary fiber 140-150 g/ kg in diet could improve FCR in the first week after weaning and tended to improve the ileal morphology.