The effect of corn kernel texture and alpha-amylase addition in performance and digestibility of diets for weaned pigs

Two experiments were carried out to evaluate the effects of diets with different corn grain textures and amylase supplementation on nutrients digestibility and nursery piglets' performance. Twelve castrated piglets (7.96 +/- 0.31kg) were individually housed in metabolic crates and 75 piglets (7.87 +/- 0.67kg) penned in 15 nursery pens. In both experiments the treatments consisted of three isonutritive diets: 1. semi dent corn grain; 2. flint corn grain, and 3. flint corn grain + amylase. There was effect of treatments (P<0.05) in digestible (DE) and metabolisable energy (ME), with the semi dent corn grain diet having DE and ME higher values (3872 versus 3767kcal DE kg(-1) and 3778 versus 3660kcal ME kg(-1), respectively) than flint dent corn grain diet. The amylase addition increased the DE and ME in flint dent corn diet (3872 versus 3826kcal DE kg(-1) and 3778 versus 3742kcal ME kg(-1), respectively). The corn grain characteristics didn't influence (P<0.05) feed intake, average daily gain and feed conversion and amylase addition didn't affect (P>0.05) the performance characteristics studied. In conclusion, diets with flint or semi dent corns and amylase supplementation did not improve the performance of piglets. On the other hand, semi dent corn diet has more digestible energy in comparison with flint corn diet and amylase addition increase energy values of flint corn diet.