부산대학교 도서관

This study investigated the effects of fermented milk (FM) supplementation on the growth performance and gut conditions of weaning piglets. A total of one hundred 10-day-old piglets were assigned to the control and FM treatment groups during the pre-weaning (10-27 day-old) and post-weaning (27-64 day-old) periods. The FM was provided daily in the form of two l/replication/d for the pre-weaning and twenty l/replication/d for the post-weaning periods. There was no difference observed in the growth performance between the two experimental groups during pre-weaning. However, during post-weaning, the daily gain and feed intake were higher in the FM group than in the control, and the feed conversion ratio decreased in the treatment group compared with the control. The blood corpuscles and physiological indexes showed no difference between the control and FM groups. Fecal Escherichia coli was lower in the FM group compared to the control, while Lactobacillus spp. was higher. Emissions of fecal hydrogen sulfide and total mercaptans were reduced by the FM supplementation. The intestinal villi in piglets fed with the FM were morphologically denser than in the control. Therefore, these results suggest that the growth performance, noxious fecal emission, and intestinal environment would be improved by FM supplementation.