Table 4.

Effect of dietary butyrate supplementation on growth performance and carcass quality of finishing pigs

Item1	Control	Butyrate2	SEM	P-value
Initial body weight, kg	65.00	64.98	0.09	0.99
Final body weight, kg	111.18	113.87	0.54	0.11
ADG2, g/d	825	873	9.21	0.09
ADFI3, kg/d	2.60	2.69	0.04	0.46
F:G4, kg/kg	0.31	0.32	0.02	0.51
Hot carcass weight, kg	83.09	86.15	1.16	0.40
Carcass yield, %	72.09	71.46	0.21	0.12
Loin eye area, cm2	50.92	48.45	1.41	0.90
Backfat depth, cm
First rib	2.70	2.89	0.17	0.449
Last rib	1.83	1.80	0.13	0.885
Last lumbar vertebra	1.19	1.20	0.08	0.915

¹Average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and gain to feed (G:F) were analyzed with pen as the experimental unit (n = 8).

²Butyrate = basal diet with 0.3% sodium butyrate.