Influence of the Promixan Probiotic on Productivity of Growing Pigs from the East Balkan Swine Breed

Abstract

An experiment with growing pigs of the East Balkan pig breed was conducted at the Scientific Center for Agriculture in Sredets, Bulgaria. The animals were divided into two groups (trial - I group and control - II group) of 10 animals in a group or a total of 20 pigs. The experiment started immediately after weaning, at a live weight of 8.320 – 8.390 kg and ended at 24.260 – 23.340 kg live weight. The pigs were fed with cereals (barley and wheat in a ratio of 50:50) with a content of 13% crude protein in kg daily ration. Promixan probiotic was added to the feed of the first (trial) group in the amount of 50 g per 100 kg of feed. The aim of the experiment was to determine the effect of the probiotic Promixan on productivity and health in growing pigs of the East Balkan pig breed. The addition of 50g per 100kg feed of Promixan probiotic to the ration of growing pigs (from 8.3-8.4 kg to 23.3-24.3 kg live weight) from the East Balkan swine breed significantly increased the growth intensity by 6.13% (P ˂ 0.01) and improved the feed conversion by 5.78%.