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Land Animal Feeding

IFFO Report (2014) - High Quality Fishmeal shown to be the best protein source for Weaned Piglets

Young piglets are extremely sensitive to the different sources of protein in their diets while their digestive system is still developing post-weaning. There can be a significant difference in the palatability and amino acid digestibility in piglets diets depending on the protein source and the processing undertaken. Anti-nutritional compounds are found in many vegetable proteins and attempts are being made to reduce these to improve piglet performance. Poor protein sources can cause greater stress to young piglets and result in poorer growth performance which can never be recovered.

Piglet

In 2014, IFFO commissioned research at the China Agricultural University to compare the effect of a number of different dietary protein sources on the performance of young piglets. The trial was to compare the performance of high quality fishmeal made from very fresh raw material low in histamine and Total Volatile Nitrogens (Super Fishmeal), more average quality Fishmeal, Soybean meal, Linseed meal as well as fermented products from these two plant meals.

The trial of these 6 protein sources involved 6 replicates each with 8 piglets and lasted from the 26th day after birth to 53rd day. The results showed (see graph below) that fishmeal (added at only 5%) gave superior growth and lower feed conversion ratios than the vegetable protein sources, although the fermentation process did seem to improve the performance of the plant proteins. The research also showed that the super fishmeal gave a better performance than the average quality fishmeal, producing the heaviest and healthiest pigs on the lowest feed conversion ratio.

Pig Trail

The full report is available in the following languages:

A summary of the report is available in a flyer in the following languages:

General

Fish lipids in animal nutrition Technical Bulletin TB22 1985

Pigs

China Pig feeding trial - Full report The Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Research Centre of Beijing Agriculture & Forestry Academy of Sciences, Beijing and IFFO collaborative study
Fishmeal for Pigs FIN document 2000
Testing Fish Meal to Reduce Pollution from Finishing Pigs Use of Fish Meal in Low Protein Diets to Reduce Nitrogen Output in Finishing Pigs. Research Report 1994-6
Fishmeal Flyer No C. 1986 No C. Effect of fishmeal or soyabean meal and different amounts of concentrate supplementing good quality silage fed to high yielding dairy cows in a commercial herd.
Fishmeal in diets for young pigs Technical Report TB17 1984
Weaning Pigs Technical Bulletin TB21 1984
The role of fish meal in diets for pigs Technical Bulletin TB06 1979

Ruminants