Increasing the inclusion of dietary fiber in nursery pig diets may stimulate beneficial gut microbiota and reduce post-weaning diarrhea. However, the digestibility of nutrients and energy is decreased in high fiber diets. Nursery pigs fed diets high in fiber have been shown to have reduced ADFI and G:F.
Bacillus-based direct-fed microbials (DFM) secrete a large amount and a wide variety of fiber degrading enzymes. It is thought that feeding DFM may offset some of the negative effects of a high fiber diet. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that addition of a Bacillus-based DFM will increase fermentation of dietary fiber and improve growth performance when fed to nursery pigs.
