One experiment was conducted to study the effect of the substitution of dry skim milk for isolated soybean protein in diets of piglets from 21 to 35 days of age. It was used 80 piglets in a experimental design involved 5 treatments, 4 blocks of 4 animals each in a total of 16 piglets per treatment. The treatments constituted the levels of substitution (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) of the protein furnished by dry skim milk for isolated soybean protein. All the diets contained 20.00% crude protein, 3420kcal D.E./kg and 8.16% lactose and 1.20 lysine. It was observed a quadratic effect for weight gain and feed conversion and a linear effect for feed intake. There was not statistical effect of villus height, crypt depth and pancreas weight/carcass weight ration. It was concluded that isolated soybean protein may be used in the diet of piglets until the level of 34.25% for weight gain, and 51.00% for feed conversion in substitution of the protein furnished by dry skim milk. The total substitution of milk protein by soybean protein did not affect the villus integrity and the ratio pancreas weight/carcass weight.
dry skim milk; intestinal morphology; isolated soybean protein; performance; piglets
