Nutritional evaluation of ground pea (Pisum sativum) in diets for growing pigs

Corn and soybean meal based diets with increasing levels of ground peas, sub-species hortense cultivar Alfetta (0, 20 and 40%), were formulated to evaluate the nutritional value of this ingredient with 18 castrated male pigs of commercial hybrids averaging 40 kg. The study also aimed to determine the apparent digestible and metabolizable energy and nitrogen retentions of peas. A total period of four weeks was used in which body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion and amount of feces and urine were evaluated. The results demonstrated an overall performance of animals fed diets with increasing levels of green peas similar to those fed the control diet without peas. These results were consistent with the outcome from the metabolism assay, which demonstrated digestibility and nitrogen retention similar to the control diet. Digestible and metabolizable energy values of 3,968 and 3,723 kcal/kg were calculated. Results clearly indicate the possibility of inclusion up to 40% ground peas in the growing pigs feeding, without any constraint on animal performance.