Response of growing pig in dietary sucrose supplementation on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, fecal score, and serum cortisol

Sucrose is a common disaccharide sugar that is used in pig diet mainly as an energy source as well as to improve the palatability of diet.This study investigated the effects of dietary sucrose supplementation on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, fecal score, and serum cortisol of growing pigs.A total of 96 growing pigs were randomly allocated into three treatment groups (8 repetitions per treatment, 4 pigs per pen).Dietary treatments included: control (CON), basal diets; treatment 1 (TRT1), basal diet with 0.75% sucrose; and treatment 2 (TRT2), basal diet with 1% sucrose.Dietary sucrose supplementation tended to improve (p < 0.10) the average daily gain compared to CON group.Moreover, increased (p < 0.05) feed intake was found in the sucrose supplemented group compared to the CON group.In comparison to the CON diet the nutrient digestibility of energy tended to increase (p < 0.10) by sucrose supplemented diet.Fecal score was not altered through dietary sucrose supplementation.Decreased (p < 0.05) serum cortisol was found in both the 0.75% sucrose and 1% sucrose supplemented diet than the CON diet.In conclusion, sucrose can be a suitable feed ingredient for growing pigs as it can improve the palatability of diet as well as feed intake, energy digestibility and reduce stress through reducing serum cortisol.