Nutritional evaluation of egg byproducts in diets for early-weaned pigs

A total of 272 Cotswold pigs (17 +/- 1 d) were utilized in three experiments to evaluate the nutritive value of spray-dried egg proteins for early-weaned pigs. In all experiments, pigs were stratified by sex and initial BW and then assigned randomly to experimental diets. In Exp. 1, four corn-soybean meal-based diets containing 7% of either spray-dried porcine plasma (SDPP), spray-dried technical albumen (SDTA), SDTA stored at 70 degrees C for 3 d (SDTA-ht), or spray-dried whole egg (SDWE) were assigned to five pens each with four pigs for a 3-wk study period. Average daily gain, ADFI, and gain:feed ratio (G:F) were determined. At the end of wk 3, five pigs per treatment were killed to determine ileal AA and energy digestibilities, as well as Enterobacteriaceae counts. Compared with the SDPP diet, ADG and G:F were lower (P < 0.05) for SDTA-, SDTA-ht- and SDWE-containing diets. Apparent ileal digestibilities of cystine, histidine, isoleucine, methionine, and threonine in the SDPP diet were lower (P < 0.05) than in diets containing spray-dried egg products. Ileal digestible energy content did not differ (P > 0.05) in all diets (3.1 to 3.2 Mcal/kg). Enterobacteriaceae counts were lower in the SDTA-ht diet than in either the SDTA or SDWE diets (P < 0.05). In Exp. 2, the effect of substituting SDPP with varying levels of SDTA was investigated. Diets were randomly assigned to five pens (except for the 100% SDTA diet, which had four pens), each with four pigs. Average daily gain, ADFI, and G:F decreased linearly as the level of SDTA was increased in the diet (P < 0.05). Replacing SDPP with SDTA at 25 or 50% had no effect on pig performance (P > 0.10). In Exp. 3, phase I diets containing 0, 25, or 50% SDTA in place of SDPP (7% of the diet) were each assigned at random to eight pens each with four pigs for a 14-d period, after which all pigs were switched to a common phase II diet lacking both SDPP and SDTA for another 14 d. Average daily feed intake and ADG did not differ among all diets in phase I and II and overall (d 0 to 28). Pigs fed the diet containing 50% SDTA in phase I had lower (P < 0.05) G:F than those fed the SDPP diet. The results indicate that technical albumen can replace 25 to 50% of SDPP in early-weaned pig diets without compromising performance, and further suggest that heat-treated SDTA may affect intestinal microbial population in pigs.