Effects of Bamboo Powder Supplementation on Growth Performance, Blood Metabolites and Carcass Characteristics of Fattening Pigs and Gas Emission and Microbial Populations in Pig Manure

In this study, we investigated the effects of dietary supplementation (n = 40 pigs/treatment) with bamboo powder (0, 1, 2 and 3%) for 38 days. We evaluated growth performance, blood metabolites, and carcass characteristics of fattening pigs and gas emission and microbial populations in pig manure, to obtain data on pork producers for environmental management. We obtained the following results. First, supplementation with increasing amounts of bamboo powder had a significant (P < 0.05) effect on feed intake, feed efficiency, and glucose contents (except for initial and final body weight, weight gain, carcass characteristics, and blood urea nitrogen). In terms of blood metabolites, glucose and blood urea nitrogen tended to decrease with increasing amounts of bamboo powder. Second, the amounts of ammonia, methane, amine, hydrogen sulfide, and acetic acid were reduced by increasing amounts of bamboo powder when compared with the controls (P < 0.05). However, there were no significant 1) Received 2 July, 2014; Revised 28 July, 2014; Accepted 5 August, 2014 Corresponding author : Sam-Churl Kim, Division of Applied Life Science (BK21Plus, Insti. of Agric. & Life Sci.), Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 660-701, Korea Phone: +82-55-772-1947, Fax: +82-55-772-1949 E-mail: kimsc@gnu.ac.kr c The Korean Environmental Sciences Society. All rights reserved. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 송영민 조재현 추교문 김회윤 이재영 김승철 김삼철 differences in pH, propionic acid, iso-butyric acid, butyric acid, iso-valeric acid, and valeric acid among all treatments. The lowest gas emission was observed when 3% bamboo powder was used. Third, supplementation with increasing amounts of bamboo powder tended (P < 0.05) to increase the total number of bacteria, Lactobacillus spp., and yeast, but E. coli, Salmonella spp., and Shigella spp. were not detected in any treatment. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that supplementation with bamboo powder was effective in reducing gas emission and inhibiting pathogen populations in pig manure by lowering the pH of the manure.