Diet nutrient digestibility and growth performance of weaned pigs fed Brassica napus canola meal varying in nutritive quality

- 200 g Brassica napus canola meal/kg replaced 200 g soybean meal/kg in diets fed to weaned pigs starting 2 weeks post-weaning.
- Substituting soybean meal with canola meal reduced protein and energy digestibility, but did not affect feed intake and growth.
- Among 4 canola meal samples, nutrient digestibility was similar but growth performance of weaned pigs differed.

Canola meal (CM) is the second most fed protein source in swine production worldwide. However, nutritive quality of CM varies and may affect growth performance of pigs. To explore, 240 pigs (initial body weight: 9.6 ± 0.7 kg) were weaned at 19 ± 1 days of age and fed diets containing 200 g/kg soybean meal (SBM) or 4 Brassica napus CM samples (CM1, CM2, CM3 and CM4 selected from 4 solvent extraction plants in 3 western Canadian provinces) starting 2 weeks post-weaning for 4 weeks (day 1-28). In the 4 CM samples, crude protein (CP) ranged from 362 to 419 g/kg, acid detergent fibre from 158 to 195 g/kg and total glucosinolates from 1.13 to 7.38 μmol/g. Diets were formulated to provide 9.6 MJ net energy (NE)/kg and 1.2 g standardised ileal digestible (SID) lysine (Lys)/MJ NE and were steam-pelleted. Comparing CM with SBM, dietary inclusion of CM decreased (P < 0.001) diet CATTD of dry matter (DM) by 0.037, of gross energy (GE) by 0.036 and of CP by 0.040, whereas digestible energy (DE) value of CM diets was maintained and predicted NE value of CM diets was increased (P = 0.027) by 0.078 MJ/kg. Among the 4 CM diets, the CATTD of DM, GE and CP did not differ, but DE and predicted NE value differed (P < 0.01). Average daily feed intake (ADFI) and average daily gain (ADG) of pigs did not differ between CM diets and the SBM diet for each week and for the entire trial (day 1-28), but gain:feed was greater (P < 0.05) for the CM diets than the SBM diet for day 1-7 and for the entire trial. Among the 4 CM diets, ADFI and ADG differed (P < 0.05) for the entire trial. In conclusion, inclusion of 200 g CM/kg to replace SBM did not affect ADFI and ADG in weaned pigs. However, growth performance differed among CM sources indicating that quality differences among CM samples affect growth performance of pigs.