Effects of Fibre on Nutrient Digestion and Time of Passage in Growing Pigs

The present study on pigs was conducted to determine the time of passage and the apparent digestibility of the major chemical components of diets containing 0.0%, 5.4% and 11.0 % dietary woodpulp. There were linear decreases in the digestibility of dry matter (r=-0.93), crude protein (r=-0.77), crude fibre (r=-0.73), nitrogen free extract (r=-0.92), ether extract (r=-0.50), crude ash (r=-0.81), acid detergent fibre (r=-0.80) and cell contents (r=-0.86) with increasing levels of dietary woodpulp. The mean retention time decreased linearly (r=-0.80) as the level of crude fibre in the diet increased. The excretion time of the markers was negatively correlated to the daily faecal dry matter output.