Growth Performance and Carcass Composition of Pigs Fed Corn Grain from DASØ15Ø7-1 (Herculex I) Hybrids

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate a transgenic source of corn grain containing the event DAS-Ø15Ø7-1 (TC1507) when included in diets fed to growing and finishing pigs. The commercial product trait name of TC1507 corn is Herculex I; this corn grain contains the cry1F gene from Bacillus thuringiensis var. aizawai and the phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (pat) gene from Streptomyces viridochromogenes. These 2 genes confer in planta insecticidal activity toward several corn pests and tolerance to herbicides containing the active ingredient glufosinate-ammonium. Ninety-six pigs were allotted to 4 dietary treatments with 3 pigs/pen and 8 pen replicates/treatment. The 4 dietary treatments consisted of corn-soybean meal diets formulated with a commercial source of corn, a standard corn, a control corn, or TC1507. Pigs were fed the experimental diets from 23.5 to approximately 120 kg BW, and the ADG, ADFI, and G:F were calculated. Hot carcass weights, back fat thickness, loin eye area, and loin eye depth were measured at slaughter, and dressing percentage and average lean meat percentage were calculated. Results of the experiment showed that pig performance was not affected by dietary treatments (P = 0.27 to 0.97) and there were no effects of dietary treatment on any carcass measurement (P = 0.13 to 0.95). Based on the results of this experiment, it was concluded that performance and carcass quality of pigs fed diets containing corn produced from seeds containing TC1507 were not different from those of pigs fed other corn hybrids.