ABSTRACT The intestinal health of piglets depends on the balance between diet, microflora and mucosal integrity. Disruption of this balance can compromise the digestive functions, leading to diarrhoeal frame and decline in performance of piglets. However, the level and type of fibre can limit digestive disorders. Thirty newly weaned piglets were used to evaluate the levels of neutral detergent fibre (NDF) in diets regarding performance, pH, viscosity and concentration of short chain fatty acids of digestive contents, gastrointestinal transit time, morphology of the intestinal mucosa, weights of organs and occurrence of diarrhoea. NDF level had quadratic effect on weight gain and feed conversion ratio of piglets, estimating best results at the level of... |