Therdchai Vearasilp, Rujirak Turagij, Sanchai Jaturasitha, T. Apichartsrungkoon, Nattaphon Chongkasikit, Nucha Simasatikul, Kesinee Gatphayak, Udo ter Meulen:
Dried Betel Vine (Piper betel Linn) Leaves as Feed Additive in Weaning Pig Diets

THERDCHAI VEARASILP¹, RUJIRAK TURAGIJ¹, SANCHAI JATURASITHA¹, T. APICHARTSRUNGKOON¹, NATTAPHON CHONGKASIKIT¹, NUCHA SIMASATIKUL¹, KESINEE GATPHAYAK¹, UDO TER MEULEN^2
1Chiang Mai University, Department of Animal Science, Thailand
²Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Institute of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition, Germany

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of using dried betel vine (Piper betel Linn) leaves as a feed additive in weaner pig diets. Sixteen weaner pigs, 28 days old, averaging 9.85 kg, were randomly divided into four groups of four animals each. Each group was allocated to one of four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design: 1. Control basal diet, 2. Basal diet supplemented with dried betel vine leaves at 0.5%, 3. Basal diet supplemented with dried betel vine leaves at 0.75% and 4. Basal diet supplemented with 1% probiotic. Feed intake, weight changes and fecal characteristics were recorded over 35 days. Average daily gain (ADG) across treatments were respectively 588, 590, 571 and 548 g day^-1. Respective feed conversion ratios (FCR) were 1.66, 1.46, 1.40 and 1.30. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) in ADG across the treatment groups. The pigs on the probiotic dietary supplementation treatment had significantly (p<0.05) better FCR compared to the control group. However, this was not significantly (p>0.05) different from the pigs supplemented with 0.5 and 0.75% dried betel vine leaves. Faecal score and fecal colour from the pigs on 0.5 and 0.75% dried betel supplementation were significantly better (p<0.05) than those of the pigs in the control group and probiotic supplemented group. Furthermore, the pigs supplemented with 0.5 and 0.75% dried betel exhibited less scouring incidence. It can be concluded that dried betel vine leaves can be included as a feed additive in weaner pig diets to decrease incidence of scours and has no detrimental effect to weaner pig growth and feed conversion efficiency.

Keywords: ADG, betel vine, FCR, faecal colour, faecal score, probiotic, weaning pig diet

Full paper: http://www.tropentag.de/2007/abstracts/full/227.pdf

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Contact Address: Therdchai Vearasilp, Chiang Mai University, Department of Animal Science 239 Huay Kaew Road, 50200 Chiang Mai, Thailand, e-mail: agitvrslchiangmai.ac.th