LAUSR

Four hundred forty weaned pigs, initial weight of 5.86 kg and 21 days of age, were used to evaluate the effect of feeding a LucraFit® nursery program on piglet performance. Pigs were randomly assigned to one of two treatments Control or LucraFit® with 12 replicates per treatment and 20 pigs per pen. Pigs were fed a four-phase nursery feed budget of 1.13, 2.27, 5.44, and 20.64 kg/pig for phases 1–4, respectively. Control diets contained 18% lactose in phase 1 and 0% in phase 2, 3, and 4. LucraFit® diets contained 0% lactose and LucraFit® was added at 2.5, 2.5, 1.25% in phase 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Body weights were taken on day 0, 8, 15, 22, 29, 36, and 43 with corresponding ADG, ADFI, G:F calculated. Data were analyzed using the Mixed procedure of SAS with pen as experimental unit. Period 1 (d0 to 8) ADG tended to increase (P < 0.10;0.188 vs 0.175 kg/d) and G:F increased (P < 0.05;1.38 vs 1.06) in the LucraFit® treatment. Period 1 ADFI was greater (P < 0.05) for the Control treatment (0.166 vs 0.141 kg/d). Period 2 (d8 to d 15), LucraFit® treatment tended (P < 0.10) to increase ADG (0.416 vs 0.398 kg/d) and increased (P < 0.05) G:F (0.973 vs 0.894). Period 3 (d15 to d 22), ADFI was increased (P < 0.05) with LucraFit® treatment (0.628 vs 0.577 kg/d) and therefore increased (P < 0.05) G:F for Control treatment (0.794 vs 0.752. Period 6 (d36 to d 43), LucraFit® treatment increased (P < 0.05) ADG (1.57 vs 1.40 kg/d) and G:F (0.565 vs 0.500). Overall (d0 to 43) Gain:Feed was increased (P < 0.05) with LucraFit® treatment (0.713 vs 0.691). Final nursery body weight (d 43) tended (P = 0.08) to increase with LucraFit® treatment (27.05 vs 26.32). The results of this study suggest that feeding LucraFit® in lactose free nursery diets improves feed efficiency.