Study of some haematic parameters as indicators of the metabolic nutritional status in Nero Siciliano growing pigs

The effect of the two feeding systems on some biochemical parameters of 30 Nero Siciliano growing pigs was studied. The animals, 16 castrated males and 14 females, were divided into two groups of 15 each, homogeneous for live weight (32.47±1.74 kg), sex (8 males and 7 females) and age (4 months), called ‘traditional’ and ‘experimental’. The pigs of the ‘traditional’ group were fed with barleycorn (2 kg/head/day) and citrus pulp (1 kg/head/day) whereas, those of the ‘experimental’ group received 1.3 kg/head/day of a pelletted complete feed (dry matter: 87.5%, on a DM basis: 18.29% crude protein, 3.43% ether extract, 6.06% crude fiber, 7.43% ash) appropriately formulated to be isoenergetic and isonitrogenous with the traditional diet. The trial lasted 120 days, preceded by 15-day adaptation period. Every thirty days, blood samples were collected for the determination of triglycerides, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL), creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), activity of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Data were subjected to ANOVA. The ‘traditional’ group showed significant lower levels for Triglyceride (0.51 vs. 0.64 mmol/l; P=0.0001), as regards the energetic metabolism, and for BUN (4.19 vs. 5.35 mmol/l; P<0.001), regarding the proteic metabolism, probably in relation to the lower digestibility of the diet (barleycorn and citrus pulp). The scarce utilisation of feed was also testified by the Faecal consistency and Undigested fraction which has shown in the faeces a presence of integral seeds of barleycorns. No significant differences were observed for the other blood parameters.