An experiment was carried out to evaluate piglet performance with the addition of garlic and colistina in diets. Ninety-six piglets were distributed in four treatments in a complete randomized block design. The treatments were: control diet, without anti-microbials (DC); diet two: DC + 0.05% of powder garlic; diet three: DC + 0.15% of powder garlic; diet four: DC + 0.25% of colistina sulfate. Feed intake was 16.2% higher (P<0.05) for the animals fed with the diet containing colistina compared to the diet containing 0.05% of powder garlic. There were no differences in animal performance when pigs were fed diets containing 0.25% of colistine, 0.15% of powder garlic or only without anti-microbials. Weight gain was higher (P<0.05) for animals fed diets with colistine. There was not difference in weight gain between animals fed diets without or with garlic. Piglets fed garlic diets had 7% worse feed conversion (P>0.05) than animals fed the diet with colistine. In conclusion, diets without anti-microbial or with powder garlic can not replace diets with colistine sulfate when fed to piglets during post weaning phase.
anti-microbial; garlic; growth promoters; nutrition; piglets