Effects of Dietary Enterococcus faecium SF68 on Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, Blood Characteristics and Faecal Noxious Gas Content in Finishing Pigs

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of feeding probiotic (Enterococcus faecium SF68, EF) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood characteristics and faecal noxious gas content in finishing pigs. A total of eighty [($Landrace{\times}Yorkshire$)${\times}Duroc$] pigs with an initial BW of $50.47{\pm}2.13kg$ were used in this 8-week experiment. Pigs were allotted to four treatments (4 replicates per treatment and 5 pigs per pen) according to a randomized complete block design. Dietary treatments were: 1) CON (control; basal diet), 2) CTC (control diet+0.1% antibiotic, chlortetracycline), 3) EF1 (control diet+0.1% probiotic, EF) and 4) EF2 (control diet+0.2% probiotic, EF). During weeks 0-4, ADG was not affected by the addition of antibiotic or EF (p>0.05). In weeks 4-8, ADG tended to increase in CTC and EF treatments compared to CON treatment (p0.05). Digestibilities of DM and N were higher in EF supplemented treatments than in CON and CTC treatments (p0.05). Supplementation of EF in the diet decreased faecal ammonia nitrogen ($NH_3$-N) and hydrogen sulphide ($H_2S$) concentrations (p