Using a Screening Tool Is Effective in Choosing Costly Nursery Ingredients

Abstract Identifying effective nutritional strategies that support feed intake and post-weaning adaptation is a key priority for the swine industry. Nursery diets often include a range of specialty proteins, carbohydrate sources, and mineral additives, yet their relative efficacy within complex diets is not well established. A Plackett–Burman experimental design provides an efficient approach to screen multiple dietary factors simultaneously. Therefore, this study utilized a Plackett–Burman design to evaluate the effects of various nursery diet ingredients and housing environments on growth and adaptation of pigs during the first week of post-weaning. A total of 312 weaned pigs from 24 litters (weaning age: 19 ± 2 d; initial BW: 5.8 ± 1.5 kg) were used. Twelve litters remained in farrowing stalls (STALLS) and twelve were moved to nursery pens (PENS). Pigs were weaned by litter and assigned to treatment by litter weight to 1 of 12 dietary treatments arranged in a Plackett–Burman design, where each diet contained a combination of ingredients at high (included) or low/absent levels. Factors tested included fermented soybean meal (FS, HP300), whey, whey permeate, fishmeal, spray-dried animal plasma (SDAP), steam-rolled oats, dextrose, cornstarch, zinc oxide, copper chloride, soybean oil, and dietary acid-binding capacity. Diets met or exceeded NRC requirements. Dietary factors were coded as + 1 when the ingredient was included and -1 when low/absent, and effects on ADG were evaluated using PROC GLM (SAS 9.4). Individual pig body weights were recorded on days 0, 4 and 7 post-weaning to calculate ADG. Pigs fed diets containing SDAP had greater ADG than those without SDAP from day 0 to 4 (122.8 vs. 56.5 g/d; P = 0.012), day 4 to 7 (17.5 vs. –42.4 g/d; P = 0.012), and overall from day 0 to 7 (77.7 vs. 14.1 g/d; P = 0.001). From day 4 to 7, inclusion of DairyLac tended to increase ADG (26.2 vs. –40.4 g/d; P = 0.103), whereas FS and whey permeate inclusion reduced ADG over the same period (–33.7 vs. 33.7 g/d, P = 0.021; –29.3 vs. –3.4 g/d, respectively). Housing also affected growth, with pigs in STALLS showing higher ADG from day 4 to 7 (8.5 vs. –33.3 g/d) and a tendency for greater overall ADG from day 0 to 7 (58.9 vs. 33.0 g/d; P = 0.110) than pigs in PENS. In conclusion, inclusion of spray-dried animal plasma improves early post-weaning growth, likely by supporting gut health and immune function. Weaning pigs in their farrowing stalls also enhances growth, likely by reducing stress and promoting early eating behavior. The experimental design is an effective method to assess numerous ingredient options or management options in promoting early weaned pig feed intake.