• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.485-498
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• 2008

This study was conducted to evaluate effects of dietary rare earth on growth performance, blood immune- related cell population, meat quality and fecal odor emitting gases in finishing pigs. The total of sixty four (Landrace×Yorkshire×Duroc) pigs(65.42±1.16kg in average initial body weight) were used for feeding trial during 10 weeks of experimental period. Dietary treatments included 1) NC(antibiotic free diet), 2) PC (NC diet+6 weeks 44ppm of tylosin/ 4 weeks 22ppm of tylosin) 3) RE1 (NC diet + 100ppm of RE), 4) RE2 (NC diet+200ppm of RE). There were four dietary treatments with four replicate pens per treatment and four pigs per pen. During the overall periods, there were no significant differences in ADG(Average daily gain), ADFI (Average daily feed intake) and gain/feed ratio among treatments(P>0.05). Dry matter and nitrogen digestibility were higher in RE2 treatment group than other groups(P<0.05). Also, energy digestibility was higher in RE2 treatment group than PC and RE1 treatment groups(P<0.05). At the 6th week WBC(white blood cell) was significantly increased(P<0.05) in RE1 treatment group than NC and RE2 treatment groups. L* value of M. logissimus dorsi muscle color was significantly increased(P<0.05) in rare earth supplemented groups compared to NC treatment group(P<0.05). However, a* value was lower in RE1 treatment group than PC treatment group (P<0.05). In fatty acid composition of Intramuscular fat, total MUFA was significantly higher in RE2 treatment group than other groups(P<0.05). Also, total UFA was significantly increased in RE2 treatment group compared with NC and PC treatment groups(P<0.05). In fatty acid composition of back fats, total SFA of rare earth supplemented groups were lower than in PC treatment group(P<0.05). UFA:SFA ratio was significantly higher in rare earth supplemented groups than PC treatment group(P<0.05). In fecal odor emission, NH3 was significantly decreased(P<0.05) in rare earth supplemented groups compared to NC and PC treatment groups. In conclusion, the results of the experiment was affected by rare earth supplementation on digestibilities, meat quality, fatty acid and fecal odor emission gases in finishing pigs.