Effect of dietary supplementation of fermented Rhus verniciflua on growth performance, apparent total tract digestibility, blood profile, and fecal microflora in weanling pigs

Fermented Rhus verniciflua (FRV) as feed additives act as excellent anti-diarrheal drugs as they increase the intestinal absorption rate therefore being indirectly associated with enhancing growth performance and increasing digestibility in livestock. A total of 80 weaned pigs with an average initial body weight (BW) of $6.82{\pm}1.11kg$ were used to evaluate a diet supplemented with FRV meal in a 6 week feeding trial with two dietary treatments [CON - basal diet; TRT - CON + 0.2% FRV] on growth performance, apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD), blood profiles, fecal microflora, and fecal score. Our results showed that the dietary supplementation of FRV improved (p < 0.05) average daily gain and gain : feed (G : F) ratio during days 15 - 42 and the overall experiment period and also increased the ATTD of dry matter (p < 0.05) at days 14 and 42. On the contrary, there was no effect (p > 0.05) on average daily feed intake, ATTD of nitrogen and energy, and blood profiles during the entire experiment. Moreover, dietary inclusion of FRV significantly increased fecal Lactobacillus (p < 0.05) counts and reduced the diarrhea during days 22 - 42. Thus, the results suggest that FRV can be used as a potential additive to improve growth performance and dry matter and to reduce diarrhea while having beneficial effects on fecal microflora in weanling pigs.