Replacing soybean meal with micronized soybeans in starter piglet diets and their residual effects during growing and finishing phases

Aim of study: To assess the effects of replacing soybean meal (SBM) with micronized soybean (MS) on the digestibility (Experiment I) and performance (Experiment II) of piglets in the starter phase and its residual effects on the growing/finishing phases and carcass and meat quality traits Area of study: São Paulo, Brazil. Materials and methods: The treatments consisted of different levels of dietary replacement of SBM with MS at intervals of 25%, totaling five inclusions (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%). Main results: In Exp. I, the administration of the pre-starter I diet resulted in a positive linear effect (p<0.05) on the apparent digestibility coefficient (ADC) of crude protein and a quadratic effect (p<0.01) on the ADCs of dry matter and crude fat. For the pre-starter II diet, there was a quadratic effect on the ADCs of dry matter and crude fat (p<0.05). For the starter diet, a negative linear effect on the ADC of dry matter was observed (p<0.01). In Exp. II, the feed intake and weight gain decreased linearly throughout the starter phase (p<0.01), while no significant difference (p>0.05) in feed conversion was observed with increasing inclusion level of MS. Research highlights: Replacing SBM with MS in the starter diet did not influence performance during the growing and finishing phases. Meat quality was not affected but a lower retail cut weight were observed in animals fed a starter diet with higher levels of MS.