Influence of Feeding Weaned Piglets with Laminaria digitata on the Quality and Nutritional Value of Meat.

Laminaria digitata is a novel feedstuff that can be used in pig diets to replace conventional feedstuffs. However, its resilient cell wall can prevent the monogastric digestive system from accessing intracellular nutrients. Carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZyme) supplementation is a putative solution for this problem, degrading the cell wall during digestion. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of 10% L. digitata feed inclusion and CAZyme supplementation on the meat quality and nutritional value of weaned piglets. Forty weaned piglets were randomly allocated to four experimental groups ( n = 10): control, LA (10% L. digitata , replacing the control diet), LAR (LA + CAZyme (0.005% Rovabio ® Excel AP)) and LAL (LA + CAZyme (0.01% alginate lyase)) and the trial lasted for two weeks. The diets had no effect on any zootechnical parameters measured ( p > 0.05) and meat quality traits, except for the pH measured 24 h post-mortem, which was higher in LAL compared to LA ( p = 0.016). Piglets fed with seaweed had a significantly lower n -6/ n -3 PUFA ratio compared to control, to which the higher accumulation of C20:5 n -3 ( p = 0.001) and C18:4 n -3 ( p < 0.0001) contributed. In addition, meat of seaweed-fed piglets was enriched with bromine (Br, p < 0.001) and iodine (I, p < 0.001) and depicted a higher oxidative stability. This study demonstrates that the nutritional value of piglets' meat could be improved by the dietary incorporation of L. digitata , regardless of CAZyme supplementation, without negatively affecting growth performance in the post-weaning stage.