Effects of dietary enzyme cocktail on growth performance, intestinal morphology, and nutrient digestibility of weaned pigs

Soybean, one of most widely used swine feed component in the world, contains non-starch polysaccharides (NSP). The digestive system of weaned pigs is not yet fully developed, and thus weaned pigs cannot easily digest diets based on corn and soybean meal. Dietary exogenous enzymes supplementation has been intensively investigated to assist digestion of anti-nutritional factors, such as NSP. This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary enzyme cocktail on growth performance, intestinal morphology, and nutrient digestibility of weaned pigs. A total 36 weaned pigs ($5.92{\pm}0.48kg\;BW$; 28 d old) were randomly allotted to 2 dietary treatments (3 pigs/pen, 6 replicates/treatment) in a randomized complete block design. The dietary treatments were a typical diet based on corn and soybean meal (CON) and CON with 0.05% enzyme cocktail (Cocktail; mixture of xylanase, ${\alpha}-amylase$, protease, ${\beta}-glucanase$, and pectinase). Pigs were fed their respective diets for 6 wk. Growth performance, morphology of ileum, apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of dry matter, crude protein, and energy of weaned pigs were measured. No significant differences (p > 0.05) were observed for growth performance for the duration of the experimental period, and morphology of ileum, and nutrient digestibility between CON and Cocktail treatment groups. Therefore, the results from the current study indicated that enzyme cocktail supplementation in diets had no influence on growth performance, intestinal morphology, and nutrient digestibility of weaned pigs.