Effects of feed forms on growth pattern, behavioural responses and feacal microbial load of pigs fed diets supplemented with Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics

Changing feed forms can improve or destroy the nutritive values of feedstuffs and eventually impact positively or negatively on the growth and development of pigs. However, there is paucity of information on supplementation of wet or dry feed with Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics. In this study, the effect of feed forms on growing pigs supplemented with Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics was therefore evaluated. Twenty four (24) growing pigs (Landrace x Large white) with an average weight of 17 ±2.1kg were allocated to four experimental treatments T1 (dry mash without probiotics), T2 (wet feed without probiotics), T3 (dry mash + Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics) and T4 (wet feed + Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics) which were replicated three times with two pigs per replicate in a completely randomised design. Growth pattern, faecal microbial load and behavioural activities (eating, drinking, physical pen interaction and frequency of visiting the drinking troughs) were assessed in 49 days. Pigs fed dry mash without probiotics (T1) had the highest daily feed intake among the experimental animals (1.10kg) while pigs on supplemented diets (T3 and T4) had an average daily feed intake of 0.95kg. However, the feed conversion ratio was significantly (p<0.05) influenced with pigs on T3 having least value of 1.86 compared to those on T4 (wet feed + Saccaromyces cereviseae) with FCR of 3.6. Total organism counts varied significantly (p<0.05) with pigs on T1, T2, T3 and T4 with mean values of 179.5 x106cfu; 132 x 106cfu; 32 x 106cfu; and 64.50 x 106cfu respectively. Coliform count was also significantly (p<0.05) different among the treatments with corresponding values of 117.5 x 106cfu; 49 x 106cfu, 8 x 106cfu for pigs in T1, T2 and T4 respectively. The pigs in T1 spent most time eating (7.88%) while their counterparts on T3 spent the least time eating. The corresponding physical pen interaction times expressed in percentage of a day for pigs in T1, T2, T3 and T4 are 6.22%, 5.92%, 4.04% and 4.80% respectively. Pigs fed dry feed (T3) which was supplemented with Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics had the better overall performance, least faecal microbial load than wet fed pigs either supplemented with Saccaromyces cereviseae or non-supplemented.Keywords: Feed forms, growth, feed utilization, behaviour, microbia