Korean Journal of Agricultural Science ISSN:2466-2402(Print) 2466-2410(Online) 농업과학연구

This study investigated the influence of sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate (SSL) emulsifier on the growth performance and nutrient digestibility of growing pigs. For this 56-day long-duration experiment, 80 heads of cross-bred ([Landrace × Yorkshire] × Duroc) pigs with an initial body weight of 23.80 ± 4.87 kg were divided into two (2) treatment groups each fed a different diet: with and without an emulsifier. Each treatment group had 8 replication pens with 5 pigs per pen. Feed treatments were as follows: 1) CON: Basal diet, and 2) SSL: CON + 0.05% SSL. Body weight (BW), average daily gain (ADG), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were measured for three periods: 0 - 4, 5 - 8, and 0 - 8 weeks. The nutrient digestibility parameters consisting of dry matter (DM) digestibility and nitrogen (N) digestibility were calculated on the 4th and 8th week. Based on the results, the SSL supplementation did not show any significant influence on the growth performance parameters during the 0 to 4 and 5 to 8 week phases. For the overall performance, only the FCR (p = 0.048) was significantly different in the emulsifier fed group (SSL) compared to the CON group (T1). DM and N digestibility was also not influenced by the SSL addition in the growing pig diet. Overall, the SSL supplementation showed a limited effect on the growth performance of growing pigs.