• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.1308-1315
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• 2001

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of different methods of feeding and processing of diets on performance, morphological changes in the small intestine and nutrient digestibility of young pigs. A total of 120 pigs (Youkshire${\times}$Landrace${\times}$Duroc; initial body weight of $5.83{\pm}0.67kg$) were randomly allotted into six treatments in a $2{\times}3$ factorial design. Treatments were 1) dry feeding with a mash diet (DM), 2) dry feeding with a pelleted diet (DP), 3) dry feeding with an expanded crumble diet (DEC), 4) wet feeding with a mash diet (WM), 5) wet feeding with a pelleted diet (WP), 6) wet feeding with an expanded crumble diet (WEC). Average daily gain (ADG) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) were not significantly (p>0.05) different among treatments. However, feed conversion ratio (FCR) was significantly improved when pigs fed a pelleted diet or an expanded crumble diet. Pigs fed an expanded crumble diet showed 9.2% and 17.3% improvement in ADG and FCR compared with those fed a mash diet. The morphological changes in the small intestine were examined at the termination (4 weeks after weaning) of the experiment. Differences in morphological changes of gastrointestinal tract were not significant among treatments. Though villus height was not significantly affected by feeding method or feed processing, the villus height of weaned pigs tended to be preserved by wet feeding. The use of a pelleted diet also helped to prevent the shortening of villus height. Pigs fed a WP diet maintained the highest villus height at all parts of the small intestine. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) in nutrient digestibility among treatments. However, nutrient digestibility for pigs fed a pelleted diet had a higher than that of pigs fed mash diets. Especially, pigs fed a WP diet digested 5.3% more P each day than those fed a DM diet. Compared with the mash diet, the expanded crumble diet decreased feed cost per kg weight gain by 15%. The net profit per pig was 79% higher in the expanded crumble diet pigs than in mash diet pigs. In conclusion, this study suggests that feeding processed diets to piglets can be more beneficial in terms of FCR and production cost.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.1752-1759
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• 2022

Objective: Effects of direct-fed Enterococcus faecium plus bacteriophages (EF-BP) were investigated as potential substitutes for pharmacological ZnO for weanling pigs. Methods: Dietary treatments were supplementations to a basal diet with none (NC), 3,000-ppm ZnO (PC), 1×10¹⁰ colony-forming units of E. faecium plus 1×10⁸ plaque-forming units (PFU) of anti-Salmonella typhimurium bacteriophages (ST) or 1×10⁶ PFU of each of anti-enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli K88 (F4)-, K99 (F5)-, and F18-type bacteriophages (EC) per kg diet. In Exp 1, twenty-eight 21-day-old crossbred weanling pigs were individually fed one of the experimental diets for 14 days and euthanized for histological examination on intestinal mucosal morphology. In Exp 2, 128 crossbred weanling pigs aged 24 days were group-fed the same experimental diets in 16 pens of 8 piglets on a farm with a high incidence of post-weaning diarrhea. Results: None of the diarrheal score or fecal consistency score (FCS), average daily gain (ADG), gain: feed ratio, structural variables of the intestinal villus, and goblet cell density, differed between the EF-BP (ST+EC) and NC groups, between EF-BP and PC, or between ST and EC, with the exception of greater gain: feed for EF-BP than for PC (p<0.05) during days 7 to 14 (Exp 1). In Exp 2, ADG was less for EF-BP vs PC during days 0 to 7 and greater for EF-BP vs NC during days 7 to 14. FCS peaked on day 7 and declined by day 14. Moreover, FCS was less for EF-BP vs NC, did not differ between EF-BP and PC, and tended to be greater for ST vs EC (p = 0.099). Collectively, EF-BP was comparable to or slightly less effective than PC in alleviating diarrhea and growth check of the weanling pigs, with ST almost as effective as PC, when they were group-fed. Conclusion: The E. faecium-bacteriophage recipe, especially E. faecium-anti-S. typhimurium, is promising as a potential substitute for pharmacological ZnO.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.917-922
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• 2003

This study was conducted to investigate effects of farm, type of sow Landrace${\times}$Yorkshire, LY; Yorkshire${\times}$ Landrace, YL; Yorkshire${\times}$Yorkshire, YY and multi-cross bred sow, MBS), parity, farrowing year, farrowing season and mating method on reproductive traits such as total number born per litter, number of born alive per litter, number of weaned per litter, number of mummified per litter, number of stillbirth. The Reproductive Records of 3,387 litters from January, 1999 to September, 2002 were obtained from four pig farms managed by Electronic Data Processing(EDP) system. Reproductive performances for two types of F1 Sows(YL and LY) were estimated as 11.34${\pm}$0.266 and 11.57${\pm}$0.263 heads for total number of born per litter, 10.56${\pm}$0.216 and 11.81${\pm}$0.251 heads for number of born alive per litter, and 10.05${\pm}$0.131 and 9.96${\pm}$0.153 heads for number of weaned per litter, respectively. These records are significantly higher(P〈0.05) than those of YY and MBS. However, number of mummified per litter, number of stillborn per litter, number of dead by diarrhea per litter, number of dead by other reasons during lactating period per litter and estrus interval did not show significant difference between types of sows. There were more total number of born per litter and number of weaned per litter in year 2001 than other year. As year passed, number of dead by crush per litter, number of dead by diarrhea per litter and number of dead by other reasons during lactating period per litter reduced from 0.18${\pm}$0.023 to 0.07${\pm}$0.022 head, 0.12${\pm}$0.21 to 0.02${\pm}$0.020 head and 0.43${\pm}$0.041 to 0.22${\pm}$0.040 head, respectively and weaning rate increased from 0.94${\pm}$0.005% to 0.97${\pm}$0.005%. The total number of born per litter and number of born alive per litter were higher(P〈0.05) in the case of mating twice than mating once. The number of weaned per litter, number of mummified per litter and number of stillborn per litter were not significant(P〈0.05) between mating methods. Estrus interval was shorter on the occasion of twice artificial insemination(5.24${\pm}$0.153days) than twice natural mating(6.51${\pm}$0.466days).

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.103-110
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• 2010

This study was conducted to determine the effect of supplemental medicinal plants (Artemisia, Acanthopanx and Garlic) on productive parameters in pigs. In experiment 1, a total of 90 multiparous sows were used in a 21-d performance study. The diets included: 1) CON (basal diet; Control), 2) BM1 (CON + 0.1% medicinal plants) and 3) BM2 (CON + 0.2% medicinal plants). Backfat thickness from farrowing to weaning was higher (P<0.05) in CON compared with sows fed treatments diets. The piglets weight gain was higher in the medicinal plants treatments (P<0.05). ADFI, nutrient digestibility and survivability were not affected by the experimental treatments. In experiment 2, a total of 60 finishing pigs (Landrace ${\times}$ Yorkshire ${\times}$ Duroc, $65.21\;{\pm}\;0.04\;kg$ average initial body weight) were used in a 56-d performance assay to determine the effects of supplemental medicinal plants (Artemisia, Acanthopanx and Garlic) on growth performance and carcass characteristics in finishing pigs. The dietary treatments included: 1) CON (basal diet ; Control), 2) BM1 (CON + 0.1% medicinal plants) and 3) BM2 (CON + 0.2% medicinal plants). For 4~8 weeks and overall period, ADG was higher (P<0.05) in the pigs fed medicinal plants. CON treatment was higher 24 pH loin and cooking loss than BM1 treatment (P<0.05). Water holding capacity and drip loss after 1day were affected by the dietary treatments (P<0.05). No numerical differences were observed in sensory evaluation, meat color, TBARS and loin area among three treatments. In conclusion, the results obtained from this feeding trial suggest that the medicinal plants mixture supplementation in diets for finishing pigs can improve ADG, water holding capacity, cooking loss and it improved backfat loss in sow and, litter weight gain.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.271-278
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• 2020

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli is one of the major causative infectious agents of diarrhea in newborn and post-weaning pigs and leads to a large economic loss worldwide. However, there is limited information on the distribution and characterization of virulence genes in E. coli isolated from diarrheic piglets, which also applies to the current status of pig farms in Korea. To investigate the prevalence and characterization of virulence genes in E. coli related to diarrhea in piglets, the rectal swab samples of diarrheic piglets (aged 2 d to 6 w) were collected from 163 farms between 2013 and 2016. Five to 10 individual swab samples from the same farm were pooled and cultured on MacConkey agar plates, and E. coli were identified using the API 32E system. Three sets of multiplex PCRs were used to detect 13 E. coli virulence genes. As a result, a total of 172 E. coli isolates encoding one or more of the virulence genes were identified. Among them, the prevalence of individual virulence gene was as follows, (1) fimbrial adhesins (43.0%): F4 (16.9%), F5 (4.1%), F6 (1.7%), F18 (21.5%), and F41 (3.5%); (2) toxins (90.1%): LT (19.2%), STa (20.9%), STb (25.6%), Stx2e (15.1%), EAST1 (48.3%); and (3) non-fimbrial adhesin (19.6%): EAE (14.0%), AIDA-1 (11.6%) and PAA (8.7%), respectively. Taken together, various pathotypes and virotypes of E. coli were identified in diarrheic piglets. These results suggest a broad array of virulence genes is associated with coliform diarrhea in piglets in Korea.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.499-508
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• 2008

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of bio-starch from corn processing to replace dried whey in weaned pigs. A total of 120 crossbred [(Landrace×Yorkshire)×Duroc] pigs were weaned at 21 days of age weighing 6.01±0.34 kg in average. Five week feeding trial consisted of phase 1(0~2 wks) and phase 2(3~5 wks). Dietary treatments included 1) CON(basal diet), 2) BS5(whey 5%, partial substitution of bio-starch), 3) BS10(whey 10%, partial substitution of bio-starch) and 4) BS15(whey 15%, partial substitution of bio-starch). There were four dietary treatments with six replicate pens per treatment and five pigs per pen. During the overall period, there were no significant differences in the ADG(average daily gain) and gain/feed ratio among the treatments(P>0.05). However, the ADFI(average daily feed intake) was higher in BS5 and BS15 treatments than in CON treatment(P<0.05). At the 2nd week, dry matter and nitrogen digestibility were increased(quadratic effect, P=0.03 and P=0.01, respectively; cubic effect, P<0.001 and P=0.01, respectively) with the highest at 10% of bio-starch inclusion in the diets. At the last week of the experiment, dry matter, nitrogen and energy digestibility were increased(P<0.05) with the highest at 5% of bio-starch inclusion in the diets. At the 2nd week total protein concentration was increased(linear effect, P=0.04; cubic effect, P=0.01) with the highest at 10% of bio-starch inclusion in the diets. Also, BUN(blood urea nitrogen) was increased(linear effect, P=0.01) as the level of bio-starch inclusion increased in the diets. Fecal consistency score was inclined to lowers CON treatment than other treatments. In conclusion, the result of trial indicates that bio-starch can be included at the level of 5~10% of weaning pig diet replacing part of the dried-whey, and digestibilities were positively affected by bio-starch at growth stage.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.205-215
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• 2010

Geothermal heat pump system (GHPS) is an energy-efficient technology that use the relatively constant and renewable energy stored in the earth to provide heating and cooling. With the aim of using GHPS as a heating source, it's possibilities of application in farrowing house were examined by measuring environmental assessment and sow's performance. A total of 96 sows were assigned to 2 pig housings (GHPS and conventional housing) with 48 for four weeks in winter season. During the experimental period, indoor maximum temperature in GHPS-housing was measured up to $26.7^{\circ}C$, average temperature could maintain $21.2^{\circ}C$. The mean value of dust levels and $CO_2$, $NH_3$ and $H_2S$ gas emissions were decreased in GHPS-housing compare with those of conventional housing. Litter size, birth weight, parity and weaning weight did not differ between housings. However, feed intake of sow in GHPS-housing was lower than that of conventional housing. In energy consumption for heating, electric power consumption increased in GHPS-housing than the conventional housing, a 2,250 kwh increase, whereas there is no fuel usage for heater in GHPS-housing. Amount of ground water circulated for heating in cold weather for earth heat exchanger was 8.4-12.9 ton per day. In conclusion, GHPS may have environmental benefits and effectiveness of heating in farrowing housing and affect the performance in sows.