Effect of dietary supplementation of tapioca on growth performance and meat quality in pigs

This study evaluated whether dietary supplementation of tapioca could alleviate the negative effects of palm kernel meal (PKM) on growth performance and meat quality in growing and finishing pigs. In experiment 1, 120 73-dold crossbred growing pigs [$(Yorkshire{\times}Landrace){\times}Duroc$], with an average body weight of $31.7{\pm}4.5kg$, were used in a 3-week trial. In experiment 2, 120 108-d-old crossbred finishing pigs [$(Yorkshire{\times}Landrace){\times}Duroc$], with an average BW of $52.6{\pm}4.2kg$ were used in a 10-week trial. Treatments were: CON, a corn-soybean meal-based diet; PKM, 8% PKM, and TPKM, 8% PKM and 10% tapioca. No difference was observed in growth performance or meat quality among treatments in growing pigs. In finishing pigs, no difference was observed in growth performance or meat quality among CON and TPKM dietary treatments. Finishing pigs fed PKM decreases in final BW and ADG compared with those fed CON. Meat quality was not affected by dietary treatments. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of tapioca alleviated anti-nutritional effect of PKM on growth performance in growing and finishing pigs. Thus, the PKM with tapioca could be an available alternative energy source to reduce the cost of pig diets.