Macronutrient digestibility in Kadon pigs fed diets with isonitrogenous amounts of various carbohydrate sources.

In this experiment, the apparent digestibility of diets with isonitrogenous amounts of different carbohydrate sources was determined in Kadon pigs, which are native to the North-East of Thailand and typically kept on small-holder farms. Eight male and eight female pigs were used in a 4 x 4 Latin square design with diets containing either ground corn (GC), rice bran (RB), broken rice (BR) or cassava chips (CC). The diet with BR induced the highest digestibilities for protein and energy, but also had the highest ingredients costs. In essence, the diet with CC had produced the second highest digestibilities, whereas this diet was 18% less expensive than the diet with BR. Nitrogen (N) retention, expressed as % of N intake, was highest in the pigs fed the diet containing BR. The outcome of this study may contribute to the formulation of pig diets when aiming at optimizing ingredient costs and growth performance.