Effects of feeding canola meal and sweet lupin (L. luteus, L. angustifolius) in amino acid balanced diets on growth performance and carcass characteristics of growing-finishing pigs

Two trials, each with 48 growing-finishing pigs (30-120 kg), were carried out to evaluate the effect of 25.9% and 16.2% of canola meal in the grower and finisher diets, respectively, and the effect of diets containing 20% sweet lupin (L. luteus or L. angustifolius) with and without enzyme supplementation (Rovabio™ Excel AP) on growth performance and carcass characteristics. The diets were isoenergetic and considered adequate for protein and amino acids with fixed ratios of limiting amino acids calculated on an apparent ileal digestibility basis. In the canola diets, the glucosinolate content was 2.2 and 1.3 mmol·kg^-1 in grower and finisher diets, respectively. The experiment with canola meal showed a significantly better performance in the canola groups than in the control group in the growing period. In the finishing period, the canola groups showed smaller daily gain than the control group. This indicates that the impact of glucosinolates may increase over time and that the content of canola products in the finishing period must be reevaluated in this respect. In the finishing diet, the content should not exceed 0.9 mmol·kg^-1 feed. The results of the trial with lupin showed higher daily gains (958, 932, 947, 943 vs. 896 g·day^-1) and better feed conversion ratio (2.03, 2.06, 2.07 vs. 2.13 kg feed per kg gain) in the growing period. It is suggested that the inclusion of lupin to replace soybean meal on the ileal digestible amino acid basis is responsible for these positive results. Also, in the finisher period, a significant enzyme effect was observed in feed efficiency in the supplemented groups. The carcass characteristics were not affected by either canola content or lupin variety, or by enzyme supplementation.