Dietary Silicate: A Biogenic Strategy to Enhance Growth, Gut Health, and Nutrient Utilization in Finishing Pigs through Low-Carbon Diets
This project investigates the effects of dietary silicate supplementation ongrowth performance and gut microbiome composition in growing-finishing pigs under differentdietary protein levels. Fecal samples were collected from pigs fed high-protein or low-protein(LP; 2% reduced crude protein) diets with or without 0.1% silicate over a 10-week feeding trial.Microbial community structure was analyzed using sequencing-based approaches toassess alpha and beta diversity, as well as taxonomic composition. While no significantdifferences were observed in diversity indices, silicate supplementation altered microbialcomposition, increasing the relative abundance of beneficial taxa such as Lactobacillus andLactobacillaceae. These changes were associated with improved growth performance,enhanced nutrient digestibility, and reduced fecal emissions of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, andcarbon dioxide.This dataset provides insight into diet-induced modulation of the swine gut microbiomeand its relationship with nutrient utilization and environmental emissions, supporting low-carbonfeeding strategies in pig production.