Nutrient digestibility, faecal physicochemical characteristics and bacterial glycolytic activity of growing pigs fed a diet supplemented with oligofructose or trans-galactooligosaccharides

The effect of oligofructose (FOS) or trans-galactooligosaccharides (TOS) inclusion at 10 g/kg diet for growing pigs, at the expense of cornstarch (CON), on growth performance, nutrient digestibilities, and faecal physicochemical parameters was determined. In addition, concentration of volatile fatty acids (VFA) and bacterial α-glucosidase, β-glucosidase, β-galactosidase and β-glucuronidase activities in faeces were determined as markers of intestinal microflora metabolic activity. Twelve 35-day-old castrated pigs were allocated to CON, FOS and TOS dietary treatments for an experimental period of 4 weeks. Dietary treatments did not affect animal growth performance. FOS and TOS pigs tended to have a lower faecal output than CON pigs by approximately 6.0% and 1.7% respectively. FOS and TOS did not affect total tract apparent digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, fat, crude protein, crude fiber, ADF and cellulose. Digestibility of carbohydrate components such as nitrogen free extract and NDF was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher in TOS pigs compared to CON and FOS. Digestibility of hemicellulose in TOS pigs did not differ from FOS but was significantly higher from CON. The experimental period had a significant effect on most of the parameters determined. There were no significant (P ≤ 0.05) differences between treatments regarding total VFA concentration and faecal bacterial enzyme activities. Nevertheless, an increased saccharolytic activity in the gut of FOS and TOS pigs could be postulated by the trends for apparently higher VFA concentration and bacterial α-glucosidase and β-galactosidase activities.