Dietary Effect of a Mixture of Alfalfa Hay: Peas Powder on Growing Pigs. Certain Plasma and Faeces Microbiological Analyses

A 25-day trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary mixture alfalfa hay: peas powder as partial replacement of sunflower meal (SFM) on plasma energetic profile and microbial populations of growing pigs. Ten barrows (30.28±0.53 kg, body weight; 81±3 aged) were allocated to two diets. Control (C) based on corn-SFM and soybean meal, and experimental (LP) where the dietary mixture partially replaces the SFM. At 7 and 25-days, the blood samples (N=10) were used to determine the plasma energetic profile (Spotchem EZ SP-4430, Arkray, Japan). The feed and faeces microbial populations were established by counting the colonies on selected media for each microorganism. Results showed that the LP diet maintains appropriate glucose, triglycerides and total cholesterol content to C diet (P>0.05) while improved the HDL-Cholesterol (13%, P=0.91) and LDL-Cholesterol (9%, P=0.08) content vs. C diet. In the pig's faeces, the LP diet increased the Lactobacillus (+23.33%; P<0.05) while decreased the abundance of Escherichia coli; as an effect, the total germ counts increased (+11%; P<0.05) while the Lactobacillus: Escherichia coli ratio was significantly improved vs. C diet. In conclusion, the dietary mixture alfalfa hay: peas powder had positive effects on gut health and plasma metabolite profiles of growing pigs.