Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of inclusion of garlic (GA) or guava leaf (GU) powders in diets on the performances and health status of weaned piglets. A total of 36 crossbred castrated (Yorkshire x Landrace) male piglets (7.3 ± 1.0 kg/piglet) at weaning (4 weeks age) were allocated into three treatment groups in a randomized complete block design. In each group, the piglets were divided randomly into 4 pens (replicates) with 3 piglets per pen. The treatments were: 1/Control diet (Cont) was basal diet without any supplementation; 2/ GAD: Basal diet supplemented with garlic powder at 2 g/kg feed; 3/ GUD: Basal diet with guava leaf powder supplementation in the diet at 2g/kg feed. The results showed that, average daily gain (ADG) was highest in GAD (349.3 g/piglet/ day), the lowest was in Cont (331.4 g/piglet/ day). Feed consumption of piglets was almost similar in all diets around 602-610 g/piglet/day in average 5 weeks. So, feed conversion ratio (FCR) was lower in GAD (1.72kg feed/kg gain) than that in the others two diets Cont (1.83 kg feed/ kg gain) and GUD ((1.78 kg feed/ kg gain). Piglets fed GAD (7.43% and 0.102) and GUD (6.92% and 0.101) were lower diarrhea incidence and faecal score than piglets fed Cont (11.9 % and 0.141). Piglets fed GAD (3.21 x10⁵CFU E.coli/g feces) was lowest affected by E.coli in feces than piglets fed GUD (3.54 x10⁵CFU E.coli/g feces) and Cont (4.10 x10⁵CFU E.coli/g feces). In conclusion, supplementation of 2g/kg feed of garlic or guave leaf powders in the diets for weaning piglets trend to improve average daily gain, feed conversion ratio, reduced diarrhoea incidence, faecal score and E.coli in feces of piglets.

Key words: diarrhea incidence, E. coli, faecal score, garlic powder, guava leaf powder, weaned piglets