The present work was designed to evaluate the use of mannose as a growth-promoting additive for swine in nursery phase as an alternative to the use of antibiotics. The performance, relative weight of the liver, pancreas and spleen, pH of the stomach and cecum contents were evaluated. A hundred sixty (160) weaned piglets were utilized at 21 days old, 80 being castrated males and 80 females, weighing, on average, 6.2 kg (±0.986 kg) in an experimental randomized block design with five replicates, eight blocks and four piglets per experimental unit. The treatments consisted of five rations, one of the rations containing 25ppm of the antibiotic colistin (control) and four rations with growing levels of mannose (0 %; 0.02%; 0.10% and 0.20%). The diets were isonutrient with 20% of CP and 3.500 kcal of DE/kg of ration, they were formulated to meet the piglets’ requirements in this phase. It was found that the treatments did not influence (P>0.05) gain weight, feed intake and feed conversion and pH of the stomach and cecum content. The same occurring with the absolute and relative weight of the liver, pancreas and spleen. It follows that the inclusion of mannose as a growth-promoting additive to the piglet diets in the nursery phase did not improve performance and did not influence the weight of the organs and pH of the stomach and cecum contents.
Antibiotic; organ; performance; pH; piglets; prebiotic
