Effects of Long-Term Feeding of Treated Rapeseed Meal on Growth Performance, Blood Mineral Profile and Fatty Acid Composition of Back Fat in Pigs

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of replacing soybean meal (SBM) with treated rape-seed meal (tRSM) on the growth performance, blood mineral levels and fatty acid composition of back fat in growing-finishing pigs. A total of 12 crossbred pigs (Slovakian White × Landrace) with an initial live weight of 40.82 ± 2.69 kg were divided into two dietary treatments. The experimental period lasted 84 days; 38 days in the growing period and 46 days in the finishing period. The dietary treatments were as follows: control, a SBM-based diet (growing and finishing), and experimental, a treated RSM-based diet (growing and finishing). The rapeseed meal was treated with a product that neutralizes the negative physiological effects of anti-nutritive glucosinolates contained in rapeseed products for livestock feeding. Our analysis showed minor, no significant negative effects of tRSM on live weight, average daily gain and feed conversion ratio. Replacing SBM with tRSM had no significant effects on the proportion of the total saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids of back fat samples, as well as concentrations of analysed serum minerals except zinc level. In conclusion, the inclusion of 25 % and 18 % of treated RSM in growing and finishing pig diets had no negative effects on the growth performance, blood mineral profile or fatty acid composition of back fat.