The use of flavours in feed improves performance of piglets weaned at 21 days of age

A trial was conducted with one hundred twenty 21-d-old piglets to study the effect of adding flavours to the weaning diet. The animals were distributed among 30 pens of four animals each, and five experimental diets were tested: T-1 (control diet without added flavour) and T-2, T-3, T-4 and T-5 (control diet + 4 different presentations of flavour; LuctaromReg., Lucta S.A., Spain). Body weight and feed intake were measured at 21 and 35 days of trial. No differences were observed among the four diets containing flavour; therefore only the contrasts between the control diet and the other four diets are reported. The addition of flavour increased weight gain (+11 g/d; P=0.06) and feed intake (+11 g/d; P=0.11) between 0 and 21 days. Between 21 and 35 d of experimentation, the use of flavour also improved weight gain (+37 g/d; P=0.02), feed intake (+30 g/d; P=0.14) and feed:gain ratio (-0.1; P=0.02). Over the whole experimental period (0-35 d), flavour improved weight gain (+23 g/d; P=0.01), feed intake (+18 g/d; P=0.11) and feed:gain ratio (-0.05; P=0.12). It is concluded that supplementation of piglet diets with flavour significantly improved the performance after weaning.