Effect of replacing soybean meal with clostridium ethanolamine protein on growth performance, immune function and intestinal health of weaned piglets
Protein is an essential nutrient for animal growth and metabolism. In the diet of pigs, soybean meal is usually used to meet the protein requirements. However, China is short of protein resources and highly dependent on imports. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has deployed a comprehensive promotion of soybean meal reduction and substitution actions to seek new feed materials that can replace soybean meal, which has become a hot spot in domestic research. This is of great significance for alleviating Chinese dependence on soybean imports and national food security.Clostridium autoethanogenum protein(CAP) is a single cell protein product obtained from CO gas through liquid fermentation, centrifugation, drying, and other processes, which can be used as feed material. In this experiment, a total of 180 21 days old with an average initial body weight of 7.01 kg was selected randomly divided into 5 treatment groups according to their body weight using a completely randomized grouping design. Each group had 6 replicates, with 6 pigs per replicate, half male and half female. The control group (CON) was fed a corn-soybean meal based diet, and the experimental group was fed a 1%, 2%, 3%, and 4% ethanol based diet with Clostridium protein instead of soybean meal. The experiment lasted for 28 days. During the trial, the pigs were weighed every two weeks to observe their clinical symptoms and record their repeated food intake. After the experiment, the pigs were selected for slaughter sampling, and samples of blood, jejunal mucosa, ileal mucosa, various intestinal segments, and their contents were collected.