Dietary β-glucan supplementation improves growth performance, carcass traits and meat quality of finishing pigs

This experiment was conducted to investigate growth performance, carcass traits and meat quality of finishing pigs with dietary β-glucan supplementation. A total of 96 healthy pigs (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire; initial average BW = 25 kg) were randomly allocated into 4 dietary treatments with 6 replicates per treatment and 4 pigs per replicate. The control group was fed a basal diet, and the experimental diets were supplemented with 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg Agrobacterium sp. ZX09 β-glucan, respectively. The experiment lasted 103 d. The basal diet supplemented with 100 mg/kg β-glucan significantly increased average daily gain and feed conversion ratio, probably due to the improved digestibility of dry matter, gross energy and crude protein (P < 0.05). Beta-glucan supplementation from 100 to 200 mg/kg of diet significantly increased carcass length (P < 0.05). The basal diet supplemented with 100 mg/kg β-glucan supplementation also significantly (P < 0.05) increased muscle pH, reduced drip losses and increased a(∗) values. The basal diet supplemented with 100 mg/kg β-glucan increased the content of intramuscular fat and changed the proportion of saturated fatty acid and unsaturated fatty acid, thereby improved the flavor of meat. In conclusion, the basal diet supplemented with 100 mg/kg Agrobacterium sp. ZX09 β-glucan improves growth performance, nutrient digestibility, carcass length, and pork quality of finishing pigs.