PSIV-10 Effect of Micelle Silymarin Supplementation on the Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, Fecal Microbiome, Gas Emissions, Blood Profile, Meat Quality, and Antioxidant Property in Finishing Pigs

Silymarin is an antioxidant component taken from milk thistle seeds. Such milk thistle seeds have been recognized as a safe and well-tolerated herb for pork production. Therefore, in this study we used micelle silymarin (MS) supplementation in finishing pigs’ diet to evaluate their growth performance, nutrient digestibility, fecal microbial, fecal gas emission, blood profile, meat quality, and antioxidant property. A total of 140 [(Landrace ×Yorkshire) ×Duroc] finishing pigs with average initial body weight (BW) of 51 ± 2.8 kg were used in the 10-week trial and allotted to 1 of 4 treatment groups (7 replicates/treatment with 5 pigs per pen). The nutritional diets were: Basal diet supplemented with 0%, 0.05%, 0.1%, and 0.2% of MS. Dietary supplemented with increasing level of MS linearly improved (P = 0.041) average daily gain (ADG) and trend to increase the feed conversion ratio (FCR) at week 10. While pigs fed dietary supplements with graded levels of MS linearly increased the digestibility of nitrogen (N) at weeks 5 and 10 (P = 0.017, 0.031), respectively. The inclusion of graded level of MS in the finishing diet of pigs linearly increased the fecal Lactobacillus counts (P = 0.048) at week 5, reduced the hydrogen sulfide (P = 0.022) and ammonia (P = 0.033) gas emission at weeks 5 and 10, respectively. Moreover, the inclusion of MS supplementation had linearly reduced (P = 0.004) the blood cholesterol level at week 10. At the end of the trial, pig fed diet containing MS supplementation linearly improved the meat color (P < 0.05). Thus, among tested doses, inclusion 0.2% of micelle silymarin to the basal diet is found to be optimal level to enhance the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, fecal microbial, fecal gas emission, and meat quality of finishing pigs.