Biscuit meal in diets for piglets

Abstract

This work aimed to analyze performance, consistency of feces and economic viability of piglets in theinitial phase fed with diets containing different levels of biscuit meal. Performance and consistencyof feces of 48 piglets were evaluated in the initial phase. The treatments were diet without biscuitmeal (control) and diets with 15% or 30% biscuit meal inclusion. There were no effect of treatments onbody weight of piglets, feed intake and weight gain at fourteen and twenty-one days of evaluation.Piglets fed diets containing 15% biscuit meal had a higher body weight and weight gain to the sevenday and better feed:gain ratio than the control diet at total period. Treatments did not affect thescore of feces in any of the periods analyzed. Diets containing 15 and 30% inclusion of biscuit mealshowed better economic viability compared to the control diet. Biscuit meal can be included up to30% in diets for piglets in the initial stage without compromising the performance of these animals.