Table 4.
Effect of dietary soaking of cereals with or without carbohydrase supplementation on the coefficient of apparent ileal digestibility (AiD, %), apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD, %), digestible energy (MJ/kg on a DM basis), pH and volatile fatty acid (VFA, mmol/kg) concentrations in the ileal and caecal digesta of grow-finisher pigsa.
| Cereal soaking (Csoak)b: | Fresh | Fresh | Soak | Soak | SEMd | P-Value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enzyme (ENZ)c: | − | + | − | + | ENZ | Csoak | ENZ*Csoak | |
| AiD | ||||||||
| Dry matter | 62.8 | 64.2 | 63.0 | 63.8 | 1.70 | 0.51 | 0.95 | 0.87 |
| Organic matter | 64.2 | 66.6 | 64.3 | 66.1 | 1.69 | 0.22 | 0.90 | 0.87 |
| Crude protein | 56.5 | 61.6 | 59.5 | 61.1 | 2.16 | 0.10 | 0.59 | 0.43 |
| Gross energy | 60.5 | 63.0 | 61.8 | 62.5 | 1.81 | 0.39 | 0.81 | 0.62 |
| ATTD | ||||||||
| Dry matter | 81.7 | 85.1 | 83.3 | 85.1 | 0.48 | <0.001 | 0.11 | 0.12 |
| Organic matter | 83.0b | 86.8a | 84.6c | 86.7a | 0.42 | <0.001 | 0.10 | <0.05 |
| Crude protein | 76.9 | 84.2 | 78.8 | 83.4 | 0.82 | <0.001 | 0.51 | 0.13 |
| Gross energy | 79.6c | 83.9a | 81.8b | 84.0a | 0.55 | <0.001 | <0.05 | <0.05 |
| Digestible energy | 14.8c | 15.4a | 15.1b | 15.4a | 0.10 | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 |
| Ileal digesta | ||||||||
| pH | 6.5 | 6.3 | 6.3 | 6.4 | 0.23 | 0.74 | 0.72 | 0.44 |
| Total VFAe | 50.7 | 44.6 | 47.6 | 44.3 | 10.80 | 0.65 | 0.86 | 0.89 |
| Caecal digesta | ||||||||
| pH | 5.7 | 5.7 | 5.6 | 6.0 | 0.16 | 0.13 | 0.42 | 0.22 |
| Acetate | 92.1 | 90.0 | 106.7 | 86.7 | 5.44 | <0.05 | 0.29 | 0.11 |
| Propionate | 25.1 | 21.3 | 28.5 | 19.1 | 2.26 | <0.01 | 0.78 | 0.20 |
| Isobutyrate | 1.4 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 0.17 | 0.29 | 0.47 | 0.72 |
| Butyrate | 19.0 | 13.8 | 20.9 | 13.0 | 1.68 | <0.01 | 0.78 | 0.44 |
| Isovalerate | 1.0 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.18 | 0.80 | 0.27 | 0.96 |
| Valerate | 2.8 | 2.0 | 2.7 | 1.7 | 0.34 | <0.05 | 0.65 | 0.75 |
| Total VFA | 141.4 | 129.7 | 161.5 | 122.7 | 9.09 | <0.05 | 0.46 | 0.14 |
| Acetate:Propionate | 3.7 | 4.3 | 0.8 | 6.0 | 0.83 | 0.12 | 0.32 | 0.37 |
| Protein-derived VFA | 5.2 | 4.1 | 5.2 | 4.0 | 0.45 | <0.05 | 0.86 | 0.91 |
aValues within a row with a different superscript are statistically different (P < 0.05).
bSoaking the cereal fraction of the diet prior to feeding (fresh = 0 h soaking, soak = 3 h soaking).
cEnzyme supplementation with a Xylanase and β-glucanase complex [unsupplemented (−), supplemented (+)].
dSEM = standard error of the mean.
eConcentrations of each individual VFA were not significantly different between treatments, and therefore only the total VFA concentration is shown.