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P. Gangadevi ¹, N. Kunjikutty ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Nutrition, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, IN

Abstract

The caprine species has not been the subject of interest for scientists for many years as compared to other domestic animals and hence few research data are available on the feeding habits and nutrient requirements of these animals. However, several workers in different parts of the world have earnestly started attempts to develop this species of animals for production purposes.

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Arathy Saseendran ¹, K. Ally ¹, P. Gangadevi ¹, P. S. Banakar ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Keralam Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Mannuthy, Thrissur - 680 651, Kerala, IN

Abstract

Aim: To study the effect of dietary supplementation of lecithin and carnitine on growth performance and nutrient digestibility in pigs fed high-fat diet.

Materials and Methods: A total of 30 weaned female large white Yorkshire piglets of 2 months of age were selected and randomly divided into three groups allotted to three dietary treatments, T1 - Control ration as per the National Research Council nutrient requirement, T2 - Control ration plus 5% fat, and T3 - T2 plus 0.5% lecithin plus 150 mg/kg carnitine. The total dry matter (DM) intake, fortnightly body weight of each individual animal was recorded. Digestibility trial was conducted toward the end of the experiment to determine the digestibility coefficient of various nutrients.

Results: There was a significant improvement (p<0.01) observed for pigs under supplementary groups T2 and T3 than that of control group (T1) with regards to growth parameters studied such as total DM intake, average final body weight and total weight gain whereas among supplementary groups, pigs reared on T3 group had better intake (p<0.01) when compared to T2 group. Statistical analysis of data revealed that no differences were observed (p>0.05) among the three treatments on average daily gain, feed conversion efficiency, and nutrient digestibility during the overall period.

Conclusion: It was concluded that the dietary inclusion of animal fat at 5% level or animal fat along with lecithin (0.5%) and carnitine (150 mg/kg) improved the growth performance in pigs than non-supplemented group and from the economic point of view, dietary incorporation of animal fat at 5% would be beneficial for improving growth in pigs without dietary modifiers.

Keywords

Animal Fat, Carnitine, Growth Performance, Lecithin, Supplementation.

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