Effects of medium chain fatty acids and their ability to replace ZnO in weanling pig diets

The objective of this study was to test the effects of medium chain fatty acids compared to standard ZnO or carbadox in diets for weanling pigs. A total of 360 weanling pigs of 21 days of age were used in a 35-day growth study. Pigs were weaned on day 0 of the experiment in a completely randomized design with a total of 6 dietary treatments being used. The diets are as follows: 1) control; 2) 3,000 ppm ZnO in Phase 1 and 1,500 ppm in Phase 2; 3) 50 g/ton carbadox; 4) 1% blend of C6:C8:C10; 5) 1% Feed Energy 2 (Feed Energy Corp, Des Moines, IA); 6) 1% FORMI (ADDCON, Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany). Phases 1 and 2 of the diets were fed from initial weaning to day 19, and a common phase 3 diet was fed from day 20 to 35. During the treatment period, pigs fed ZnO or carbadox had greater (P0.05) ADG results as the carbadox treatment. During phase 3, pigs initially fed ZnO had higher (P