Lecithin in swine diets: II. Growing-finishing pigs

Lecithin was investigated in diets for growing-finishing pigs. Diets were based on corn and soybean meal and contained a constant ME:lysine level. The use of lecithin as an emulsifier on utilization of soy oil by the pig was investigated in Exp. 1. Diets were arranged in a 2 x 2 factorial structure with two levels of lecithin (0 and 2%) and two levels of soy oil (0 and 6%). There were no interactions between lecithin and soy oil for any measurements of growth performance. In general, the inclusion of lecithin or soy oil did not affect (P > .1) ADG but did improve (P < .01) gain/feed during the finishing period and during the entire experiment. During the finishing period, gain/ME intake was improved (P < .01) by both lecithin and soy oil. The use of lecithin as an energy source for pigs was investigated in Exp. 2. Dietary treatments were corn and soybean meal diets with 0, 1, 2, or 3% lecithin. There were no significant differences in performance of pigs as measured by ADG, ADFI, gain/feed, and gain/ME intake among the four lecithin levels. Lecithin did not improve utilization of soy oil by growing-finishing pigs. Furthermore, lecithin was not an efficacious source of supplemental dietary fat for growing-finishing pigs in this study.