243 Assessment of Modified Corn Protein as a Protein and Energy Source for Nursery Pigs

Our objective was to evaluate modified corn protein (MCP) as a protein and energy source in nursery pig diets. A total of 198 weaned pigs (6.25 ± 0.95 kg BW) were assigned across 18 pens (11 pigs/pen) and 2 dietary treatments using a complete randomized design. Pigs were fed in 3 phases consisting of 7, 14, and 21 d respectively. In phases 1 and 2, diets included: 1) Control or 2) 10% MCP, while all pigs were on a common phase 3 diet. Diets were formulated to be iso-caloric with SID Lys at 1.45, 1.40 and 1.35% for phases 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Pigs were weighed and feed disappearance measured to calculate ADG, ADFI and G:F within phase and overall. At the end of phase 2, fecal samples were collected for determination of apparent total tract digestibility coefficients (ATTD) for dry matter, energy and nitrogen. Pen was considered the experimental unit and all data were analyzed using the mixed procedure of SAS with treatment as a fixed effect. In phases 1 and 2, ADG, ADFI and G:F did not differ between Control and MCP treatments (P > 0.05). Similarly, performance did not differ between treatments in phase 3 (P > 0.05). Overall, end BW (25.7 vs. 25.3 kg), ADG (0.42 vs. 0.44 kg/d), ADFI (0.58 and 0.61 kg/d) and G:F (0.71 vs. 0.70) did not differ (P > 0.05) between the Control and MCP treatments, respectively. However, compared with the Control, phase 2 ATTD coefficients for dry matter (80.6 vs. 78.2%), nitrogen (77.5 vs. 75.2%) and gross energy (79.7 vs. 76.9%) were significantly reduced in the MCP treatment (P < 0.05). In conclusion, MCP provided equal nursery pig performance when used as an alternative protein and energy source in diet formulations despite lower ATTD.