THE EFFECT OF PELLET FEED ON THE PERFORMANCE AND NUTRIENT’S DIGESTIBILITY OF WEANED PIGLETS

Pig production in Albania was extensive and hygiene conditions in pig stalls were often poor. Under these conditions a positive impact of pellet feed on production parameters of weaned piglets could be expected. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of pellet and meal feed on performance parameters: body weight (BW), daily weight gain (DWG), feed conversion ration (FCR) and apparent nutrient digestibility (AND) of weaned piglets. Forty weaned piglets, divided in two groups (control and experimental group) were located on a trial at 28 days of age, for 6 weeks experimental period. The utilization of pellet feed improved growth performance: Body weight 2.5%, daily weight gain 2.7%, feed intake 1.1% and feed conversion ratio, 1.6%, more than control group, for whole experimental period. Fibre digestibility was slightly increased and fat digestibility was slightly decreased. Overall a positive effect of pellet feed on growth performance was observed. There were not statistical significances for all production parameters. Based on the achieved results in the present investigations, it could be concluded that the utilization of pellet feed led to an improvement of the production parameters in pigs, especially under the extremely extensive farm conditions like these in Albanian farms of pig production.