Abstract
An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that probiotic Bacillus toyonensis M15750 improve the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of energy and nutrients when included in diets fed by weanling pigs. A control diet was formulated based on corn, soybean-meal, and distillers dried grains with solubles and a second diet was formulated by supplementing the probiotic Bacillus toyonensis M15750 (1 × 10(9) cfu/kg feed) to the control diet. Titanium dioxide (0.50 %) was added to the diets as an indigestible marker. Sixteen weanling barrows (10.7 ± 0.7 kg) that had a T-cannula in the distal ileum were allotted to the two diets with 8 replicate pigs per diet in a randomized complete block design with body weight being the blocking factor. Pigs were adapted to the diets and to the metabolism crates for 7 days, urine and fecal materials were collected during the following 4 days according to standard procedures using the marker-to-marker approach, whereas ileal digesta were collected for 8 h during the following 2 days. The AID and ATTD of energy and nutrients were calculated for each diet. The AID of dry matter and gross energy was greater (P < 0.05) and the AID of starch tended to be greater (P = 0.05) in the diet supplemented with the probiotic Bacillus toyonensis M15750 compared with the control diet (Table 1). However, no differences were observed for the ATTD of energy or nutrients between the 2 diets, which indicates that the increased digestibility in the small intestine of pigs fed the diet supplemented with Bacillus toyonensis M15750 was offset by a reduction in hindgut fermentation. These results indicate that inclusion of probiotic Bacillus toyonensis M15750 in diets for weanling pigs have the potential to improve the AID of dry matter, gross energy and starch.