Effects of dietary supplementation of illite on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and meat-carcass grade quality of growing-finishing pigs

This study investigated the impact of clay mineral ‘illite’ (IL) on the growth performance, apparent total tract digestibility, and meat-carcass grade quality in growing-finishing pigs. One hundred fifty pigs were divided into two groups with fifteen pens/group and five pigs/pen, a control group that was fed with a corn-soybean meal-based diet and illite treated group were fed a meal-based diet supplemented with 0.5% illite.  Compared to the control, IL supplementation increased average daily feed intake (ADFI) and reduce G: F in the pigs during days 43 to 70 and 99 to 126 and increased dry matter during days 42 and 126, and backfat thickness on day 98 (P < 0.05). The drip loss was reduced on day 7, meat firmness tended to increase with dietary IL supplementation. In summary, dietary 0.5% IL supplementation improved ADFI, nutrient utilization of dry matter, and firmness and reduced G: F and drip loss of growing-finishing pigs.