Effects of Dietary Supplementation of Antifungal Agents, Probiotics or Toxin Binder to Aflatoxin-contaminated Diets on the Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Growing Pigs

In order to assess the effects of dietary supplementation of antifungal agent, probiotics or toxin binder to aflatoxin contaminated diets on performance, carcass characteristics and blood metabolites of growing pigs, 240 growing pigs (LandracexYorkshirexDuroc; BW 53.97 +/- 0.35 kg) were randomly allotted to five treatments on the basis of BW (4 pens per treatment with 12 pigs in each pen). The dietary treatments included negative control (NC; basal diet), positive control (PC; diets containing 20 mu g/kg aflatoxin), and PC diet supplemented with either 0.10% sodium propionate (antifungal agent; T1), 0.30% Bacillus subtilis (T2) or 0.1% zeolite (toxin binder; T3). The diets were fed in a meal form for two phases (phase I; 0-4 wk and phase II; 5-9 wk). Results indicated that the growing pigs fed NC and T3 diet had greater (P<0.05) final BW and overall ADG (0-9 wk) than pigs fed PC and T1 diets. Final BW and overall ADG of pigs fed T2 diets remained comparable (P>0.05) with pigs fed PC, T1 and T3 diets. Dietary treatments had no effects (P>0.05) on ADFI, gain: feed ratio, apparent total-tract digestibility of DM, GE and CP of pigs. Also, there were no effects (P>0.05) of dietary treatments on carcass characteristics of pigs except for weight of liver, which was lower (P<0.05) in pigs fed NC diet than other treatments. During phase II, pigs fed NC and T3 diets had lesser (P<0.05) WBC count than that of pigs fed PC, T1 and T2 diets. Blood glucose level of pig fed NC and T3 diets were lower (P<0.05) than pigs fed PC, T1 and T2 diets. Dietary treatments had no effects (P>0.05) on blood cortisol level. These results indicated that dietary inclusion of 1.0% zeolite (a toxin binder) had potential to improve performance of growing pigs fed 20 mu g/kg aflatoxin contaminated diets.