Abstract Piglets are frequently subjected to multifarious nutritional, psychological and environmental stresses during the weaning period, which can result in an imbalance of intestinal microflora, increasing incidence of diarrhea, and impaired growth performance. Previous studies have shown that dietary fiber had prevented post-weaning diarrhea and improved growth performance in weaned piglets; thus, we intend to examine the effect of insoluble and soluble fiber on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and fecal score in weaning pigs. A total of 105 Landrace ×Yorkshire × Duroc) weaning pigs with an average initial body weight of 6.65 ± 1.11 kg were randomly assigned to 3 dietary treatments with 7 replications of 5 pigs/pen for 5 weeks. Dietary treatments were as follows:CON: basal diet; TRT1: basal diet (insoluble fiber); TRT2: basal diet (soluble fiber). Growth performance body weight (BW), average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and gain to feed ratio (G: F), nutrient digestibility dry matter (DM), nitrogen (N), and energy (E), and fecal score were measured at the end of weeks 1, 3, and 5. All data were analyzed using the GLM procedure of SAS. Duncan analyses were performed, and the significant difference was decided by comparing the means. P 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Supplementation of soluble fiber in the basal diet significantly increased average daily feed intake (P 0.05) throughout the experimental period, suggesting enhanced feed palatability and gut health. However, neither insoluble nor soluble fiber supplementation had no significant effects on nutrient digestibility or fecal score by the end of week 5. Our finding demonstrates that incorporating an appropriate level of dietary fiber, particularly soluble fiber, into weaning pig diets may help stimulate feed intake and support better adaptation during the weaning transition.
Jang et al. (Wed,) studied this question.