Inclusion of dietary multi-species probiotic on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, meat quality traits, faecal microbiota and diarrhoea score in growing–finishing pigs

This study evaluated the effects of multi-species probiotic (MSP) in growing–finishing pigs. One hundred and fifty pigs [(Yorkshire × Landrace) × Duroc] with an average weight of 24.5 ± 0.88 kg were fed in two phases in a 16-week trial. Pigs were allotted to one of three diets with basal diet supplemented with 0, 0.1 or 0.2 g/kg MSP. Dietary inclusion of MSP increased (p < .05) body weight, average daily gain and gain:feed without effects of average daily feed intake at overall experiment and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of dry matter (p = .025) and nitrogen (p = .067) at week 16. Dietary inclusion of MSP increased faecal Lactobacilli and decreased E. coli counts (p < .05) during entire experiment. The diarrhoea score in pigs fed the MSP diet was reduced (p < .05) compared with pigs fed the control diet. Dietary MSP exhibited increased sensory evaluation of colour (p = .003) and back fat thickness (p = .012) at week 16. Furthermore, the tendency to increased firmness and reduction of cooking and drip loss (p < .10) was observed. These results suggest the improving effects of dietary inclusion of MSP on growth performances, ATTD of nutrients, faecal microbiota, diarrhoea score and meat quality in pigs.