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Extrusion of corn-soybean product blends in replacement of soybean meal in weanling pig diets

Milani, N., V. Paula, C. Azevedo, A. Sedano, H. Moreira, Jr., R. Fernandes, A. Andrade and U. Ruiz
2020

Extrusion is a thermomechanical process that can reduce the content antinutritional factors in soybean, improving the use of its nutrients by pigs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate extruded corn-soybean grain blends, replacing soybean meal in weanling pig diets, on pigs growth performance from 21 to 63 d old. Ground corn and the corn-soybean blend (75.27% of ground corn and 24.73%) were extruded at 120°C in a single-screw extruder. One hundred and sixty crossbred weaned pigs (6.02 ± 0.63 kg) were used in a three-phase feeding program (21-35, 36-49, 50-63 days of age) and fed a basal diet (BD – extruded corn, dairy product, spray dried plasma, and soybean meal) or one of four diets in which soybean meal was replaced for deactivated (DS) or extruded (EX) corn-soybean blend, in 50 or 100%, generating diets DS50, DS100, EX50 and EX100. Diets were formulated to provide 3.40, 3.38, and 3.20 Mcal of ME/kg; 220, 215, and 190 g/kg of CP; and 14.5, 13.3, and 10.9 g/kg of digestible lysine, in phases 1, 2, and 3, respectively. A randomized block design based on initial BW was used. The data was submitted to ANOVA and means were separated using Tukey test (5%). Pigs fed diets EX50 and EX100 presented reductions (P< 0.05) in ADG (16-50%), final BW and G:F (13-33%) compared to pigs submitted to diets SBM100, DS50 or DS100 in phases 1 and 2. ADG, ADFI, and G:F of pigs were not affected (P >0.05) in phase 3, but final BW of pigs fed extruded corn-soybean blend were lower (P< 0.05) than that of pigs fed other diets.

The extrusion temperature may have been insufficient to inactivate the anti-nutritional factors of soybean that probably reduced pigs growth performance The inclusion of extruded corn-soybean blend in replacement of soybean meal reduced growth performance of pigs.