DIFFERENTIAL RESPONSE OF LEGUMES AND CREEP FEEDING ON GUT MORPHOLOGY AND FECAL COMPOSITION IN WEANLING PIGS

The effects of creep feeding and different levels of soybean meal (SBM ) and cowpea meal on the intestinal morphology and faecal characterist ics were investigated in weaners. Prior to the feeding trial, one grou p of piglets was creep-fed and the other noncreep-fed. The two groups of piglets were weaned at 28 days and randomly assigned to four differ ent diets, the main protein sources of which were: T1-skimmed milk pow er (control); T2-31% soybean meal (high SBM), T3-15% soybean meal and 12% skimmed milk powder (low SBM), and T4-100% raw cowpea meal. Live w eight gain was highest in the control group, and lease in cowpea-fed p iglets. At weaning, only the noncreep-fed weaners showed villus atroph y and crypt hyperplasia but at 7 days postweaning, these changes were evident in all groups except the control and were more severe in the n oncreep SBM and cowpea-fed groups. At 21 days postweaning, only noncre ep cowpea-fed pigs showed a reduced villus height when compared to the control group. A mild diarrhoea was generally observed in all noncree p-fed weaners, but its onset was more rapid (P < 0.01) and the duratio n much longer (P < 0.05) in the high SBM and cowpea-fed pigs than in l ow SBM and control groups. A lower faecal pH was observed in weaners t hat had diarrhoea when compared with a pH of 7.1 in pigs with normal f aecal moisture. The observations of enteropathology and low growth per formance in the cowpea group suggest that feeding raw cowpea to weaner s may induce antigenicity in the intestinal mucosa, causing damage and a consequent decrease in productivity. However, the introduction of c reep feeding before weaning appears to have some ameliorative effects. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.