Fermented Products and Diets for Pigs

摘要

Fermenting diets under optimum conditions should increase the content of microorganisms in the diet, particularly the content of lactic acid bacteria. If the fermentation is successful, it may also affect the microbiological balance in the gut and also reduce the level of diarrhoea. However, results have shown that if the total diet is fermented, productivity drops as feed intake is reduced (Pedersen, 2001; Pedersen et al., 2002b; 2002c). Fermenting grain and soya bean meal to which inoculums are added also showed a negative effect on productivity (Pedersen and Lybye, 2012). Therefore, it is not recommended to ferment either diets or soya bean meal, but fermenting the grain (wheat and/or barley) increases feed utilization as digestibility of energyimproves (Pedersen et al., 2002a; Pedersen, 2006; Pedersen et al., 2009; Pedersen et al, 2010; Pedersen and Canibe,2011) and digestibility of phosphorus in grain increases during fermentation (Pedersen et al, 2010).The reason for the reduced feed intake of fermented complete diets is not clear, but the level of biogenic amines and organic acids increases through fermentation and may affect palatability of the feed. The pH value of the diet fed to pigs should neverbe below 4.5. A pH below this is an indication of excessive fermentation of the diet leading to production of compounds that affect feed intake.