Impacts of Dietary Vitamins and Trace Minerals on Growth and Pork Quality in Finishing Pigs

Two feeding trials were conducted to determine the effect of inclusion levels or deletion of vitamin-trace mineral (VM) premixes on growth performance and pork quality in finishing pigs. In exp. 1, a total of ninety-six crossbred pigs $(Landrace\;{\times}\;Yorkshire\;{\times}\;Duroc,\;85.09{\pm}3.12kg)$ were used for a 4-week feeding triaL Treatments were premix supplementation at the level of 50% (Control), 100%, 150%, and 200% of NRC (1998) requirements for vitamins and trace minerals. In exp. 2, a total of one hundred and eight crossbred pigs $(Landrace\;{\times}\;Yorkshire\;{\times}\;Duroc,\;84.76{\pm}0.58kg)$ were used for a 4-week feeding trial. Treatments were premix supplementation at the level of 0% (Control), 200% VM, and 200% vitamin E and Se listed in NRC (1998) requirements. Average daily gain (ADG) and feed/gain (F/G) were the highest at 150% VM addition level (quadratic, p<0.05) among treatments. Dressing percentage and backfat thickness in pigs were not affected by different addition levels of VM premixes. Pork stability in terms of TBARS was linearly (p<0.05) improved as dietary VM premix was increased (exp. 1). ADG, F/G and pork stability (TBARS) were also reduced (p<0.05) when VM premixes were deleted. However, supplementation of vitamin E and Se improved (p<0.05) ADG and pork stability when pigs were fed diets without VM premixes (exp. 2). In conclusion, deleting dietary VM premixes gave negative effects on growth performance and pork quality for the last 4 weeks of finishing period.