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Table 1 Effects of antibiotics or an antimicrobial peptide cecropin on the performance of four week old weaned pigs after challenge with E. coli as well as nutrient digestibility before challenge

From: Alternatives to antibiotics as growth promoters for use in swine production: a review

Items

Control

Antibiotics1

Cecropin

SEM

P-value

Performance (day 13-19)

 Weight gain, g/d

312a

367b

358b

6.4

<0.01

 Feed intake, g/d

566

597

592

9.8

0.08

 Feed efficiency

0.55a

0.62b

0.61b

0.01

<0.01

 Diarrhea incidence, %

37.50

17.86

19.64

  

Nutrient digestibility

 Nitrogen retention, g/d

10.1a

11.5b

10.7ab

0.38

0.04

 Nitrogen digestibility, %

73.2

76.9

75.0

1.20

0.17

 Energy retention, MJ/kg/d)

2.5a

3.0b

2.8ab

0.13

0.04

 Energy digestibility, %

84.6

88.2

86.4

1.71

0.14

  1. Wu et al. [21].
  2. 1Kitasamycin and colistin sulfate.
  3. a,bWithin row, means followed by same or no letter do not differ (P>0.05).