Efficacy of commercial enzymes in diets containing various concentrations and sources of dried distillers grains with solubles for nursery pigs.

In 2 experiments, 530 pigs were used to evaluate the effects of adding commercial enzymes to diets containing dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) on pig growth performance. In the first experiment, 180 pigs (9.0 kg initial BW) were fed a corn-soybean meal-based control diet, a diet containing 30% corn DDGS, or the 30% DDGS diet with 0.05% of enzyme A, B, or C. There were 6 pigs per pen and 6 pens per treatment. Overall (d 0 to 27), neither DDGS nor enzyme addition increased ADG and G:F. Pigs fed enzyme B had decreased (P < 0.05) ADG as a result of a tendency (P <or= 0.10) for decreased ADFI compared with control pigs or pigs fed DDGS without added enzyme. In Exp. 2, 350 pigs (11.0 kg initial BW) were fed 1 of 10 dietary treatments. Pigs were fed a control corn-soybean meal-based diet or the control diet containing 15 or 30% DDGS from 3 sources (corn, sorghum 1, or sorghum 2). Diets containing 30% DDGS were fed with or without the same enzyme (enzyme A) as Exp. 1. There were 5 pigs per pen and 7 pens per treatment. Overall (d 7 to 28), there were no (P > 0.10) enzyme x DDGS source interactions observed. Corn DDGS did not influence (P > 0.10) ADG, ADFI, or G:F. Sorghum DDGS reduced (P = 0.003) G:F, with no difference (P > 0.10) between sorghum DDGS sources. Adding the commercial enzyme to the 30% DDGS diets did not improve performance. In summary, feeding diets with sorghum DDGS resulted in poorer G:F with no change in ADG compared with feeding the control diet or diets containing corn DDGS. Adding the enzymes used in this study to corn-soybean meal-based diets containing 30% DDGS did not improve growth performance.