Effects Of Wheat Gluten On Nursery Pig Performance

Kansas State University Swine Reserach. One hundred eighty weanling pigs, averaging 23 d of age and 12.6 lb initial weight, were used to evaluate spray-dried wheat gluten (WG) in phase 1 (d 0 to 14) and(or) phase 2 (d 14 to 37) nursery diets. Phase 1 treatments were 1) dried skim milksoybean meal-dried whey-based control (DSM-SBM), 2) Diet 1 with WG and lactose used to replace the DSM (WG-SBM), and 3) Diet 1 with WG used to replace the SBM (DSM-WG). Phase 2 treatments were 1) corn-SBM-dried whey-based control and 2) WG and lactose used to replace the dried whey. During phase 1, diets with WG supported average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and feed/gain (F/G) similar to the DSM-SBM control. Pigs fed the diet with DSM-WG had improved F/G compared to pigs fed WG-SBM. Diets with WG had increased DM and N digestibilities but caused increased serum urea N compared to the DSM-SBM control. In the first week of phase 2 (d 14 to 21), pigs previously fed WG-SBM and DSM-WG had improved F/G and DM and N digestibilities compared to those previously fed the DSM-SBM control. Pigs previously fed the WG-SBM treatment had improved ADG, ADFI, and F/G compared to pigs previously fed DSM-WG. Overall (d 0 to 37), pigs fed WG in phase 1 had improved ADG and F/G compared to pigs fed the DSM-SBM control, and pigs fed WG-SBM during phase 1 had greater ADG and ADFI than pigs fed DSM-WG. As for the phase 2 diet treatments, dried whey supported improved ADG, ADFI, and F/G from d 14 to 21 compared to WG and lactose. However, for the entire phase 2 period (d 14 to 37) and overall (d 0 to 37), pigs fed WG in phase 2 had similar ADG and improved F/G compared to those fed dried whey. In conclusion, pigs fed WG in place of DSM during phase 1 had improvements of 13% in ADG, 9% in ADFI, and 4% in F/G for the entire nursery period.