The Effect of Dietary Micelle Silymarin Supplementation on Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, Gas Emission, Fecal Score, and Blood Profile in Growing-Finishing Pigs.

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of dietary supplementation with micelle silymarin (MS) on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, gas emissions, and blood profile of growing-finishing pigs. The objective was to evaluate whether different levels of MS in the diet could enhance overall pig performance and health outcomes. A total of 140 growing pigs, with an average body weight (BW) of 25.4 ± 4.34 kg, were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: CON (basal diet), TRT1 (basal diet + 0.025% MS), TRT2 (basal diet + 0.05% MS), and TRT3 (basal diet + 0.1% MS). Each group had seven replicates, with five pigs per replicate. The feeding trial lasted for 15 weeks. Growth performance, nutrient digestibility, gas emissions, fecal scores, and blood profiles were assessed. Dietary supplementation with MS resulted in linear improvements in BW at Weeks 5, 10 and 15, as well as average daily gain (ADG) throughout the experiment (p < 0.05). There was also a significant increase on average daily feed intake (ADFI) at Week 5 (p < 0.05). No significant effects on nutrient digestibility were observed (p > 0.05). However, there was a trend toward reduced ammonia gas emissions (p = 0.0945), and fecal scores remained unchanged (p > 0.05). A significant quadratic change in aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels was observed in the blood profile (p = 0.0430). MS supplementation, especially at higher doses, improved growth performance and showed a tendency to reduce ammonia gas emissions in growing-finishing pigs. These findings suggest that MS could be a valuable dietary additive in pig production, offering both performance benefits and potential environmental advantages.