Locally Produced Agricultural By-Products as Feed Sources for Pigs

Raw fiber concentrates, products with high content in cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, are new sources of concentrates with high biological and functional value. Recent studies have demonstrated that raw fiber concentrated products have a positive influence on intestinal development, in health status of piglets and in sows. Agricultural by-products with high lignocellulose content are commonly used as supplementary feeds for animals and with their low or zero cost can also improve the economic efficiency of animal production. The materials that have been studied in this work currently are wasted or in best case are used as pellets fuel. In order to explore these potentials a series of by-products were investigated: walnut shell, olive kernel, grape branches, woody parts of oregano, corn cobs, corn stalks, woody parts of potato, cotton stems, sawdust mix of oak, spruce and pine and cottonseed fiber. The quality of those by-products is evaluated after a series of classical feed analysis. Samples were collected from the region of Thessaly in Greece. The chemical composition of these by-products was determined in order to develop a proper feeding system for livestock. Our results showed high availability and lignocellulose content in a lot of by-products. These should be used to produce concentrated raw fiber feeds in order to improve the animal production and farmers’ livelihood. Kostas Katsoulis1, Leonidas Leontides2 and George Kontopidis1* 1Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Thessaly, Trikalon 224, Karditsa, 4313-1, Greece 2Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Animal Health Economics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Thessaly, Trikalon 224, Karditsa, 4313-1, Greece *Address for Correspondence George Kontopidis, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Thessaly, Trikalon 224, Karditsa, 4313-1, Greece, Tel: +302441066017; Fax: +3