Inclusion of spray-dried porcine plasma in non-medicated weaner diets maintains performance

摘要

Diarrhoea has been shown to represent around 11% of all post-weaning losses with enterotoxigenic E. coli being the most common cause of disease in weaner pigs (Alexander, 1994). A consistent challenge for the pig industry is to identify means for controlling diarrhoea in young pigs that are both cost-effective and suitable for sustainable pork production. Spray-dried porcine plasma (SDPP) has been widely used in North and South America for its functional proteins, which appear to offer protection against bacteria, including E. coli (Owusu-Awiedu et al, 2002), but its use in Australia has been limited by the availability of a local product. The presence of functional proteins such as immunoglobulins in SDPP lead us to hypothesise that inclusion at low levels of SDPP (20 g/kg and 30 g/kg) in non-medicated diets will support equivalent levels of performance to medicated diets.