Performance and digestibility of piglets fed with rations containing alfalfa hay and fructooligosaccharide at the initial phase

SUMMARY Two assays were accomplished being, both using a randomized block design with factorial schema (3x2) where was evaluated three levels of inclusion of alfalfa hay (0.0%; 5.0% and 10.0%) and two levels of fructooligosaccharide - FOS (0,0% and 0.3%). Assay 1 the aimed was to evaluate the performance, was utilized 72 piglets, commercial lineage,, of both genders (one male + one female/cage), six reps with initial weight of 5.95 ± 0.73kg, aged at approximately 21 days. There was no interaction between treatments. In the period from 21 to 59 days of age,, the gain of weight didn’t show differences between treatments. The group that consumed ration with addition of 0.3% of FOS showed highest consumption in comparation with the control group (0.0% FOS). It was observe an improvement on the feed conversion of the diets that didn’t have inclusion of FOS, however, it hadn’t significant difference between the control diet and the others diets in relation to the levels of alfalfa. Assay 2 the objective was to determine the rations nutrients digestibility, nitrogen balance and the digestible and metabolizable energy. It was concluded that the addition of FOS enhances the consumption of diets with alfalfa hay. The addition of alfalfa hay reduced the digestibility coefficients of nutrients except for ether extract, but did not affect the nitrogen balance.