Appetibilità e performance produttive del panello di tabacco nell'alimentazione del suino

This study is a part of a larger project of edible vaccines for swine, where we used tobacco seeds for the expression of antigenic proteins. The aim of this study was to evaluate the palatability of dietary supplementation with non transgenic tobacco seed cake and its effect on growth performances and on health status. Twenty piglets were divided in two groups, control one (CT) and treatment one (TG), and were fed ad libitum isoenergetic and isoproteic diets (PG 17%, Lys1.1%, EN 2500 Kcal). TG diet was supplemented with 3% of tobacco seed cake (PG 34.5%, Lys 0.72%, EE 10.74%). TG showed average daily gain and body weight higher than CG (15.2 vs 13.3 kg; P<0.001). Moreover the rate of intake of TG was higher than CG. No adverse reactions are observed. So tobacco seeds can be used directly in feed of piglets for following trials to evaluate the efficacy of antigenic proteins and it could be an alternative proteic source in pig feeding.