Nutritional value of cottonseed meal for swine in the finishing phase

The aim of this study was to determine the digestibility coefficients of the nutritional components of cottonseed meal for pigs in the finishing phase. Fourteen castrated male commercial pigs with average initial weight of 56.29 ± 2.49 kg were used. The animals were housed individually in cages for metabolic study (experimental unit) in a randomized complete block design (defined by initial weight) with two treatments and seven replications per treatment. The treatments consisted of a reference diet, formulated to meet the minimum nutritional requirements of pigs in the finishing phase, and a test diet, consisting of 75% of the reference diet and 25% of cottonseed meal. The total feces collection method was used. The values of chemical and digestible composition of cottonseed meal were 88.78; 93.82; 6.18; 21.11; 19.26; 4.29 and 44.09%; and 57.78; 48.62; 0.48; 2.82; 5.83; 2.58 and 28.86% for dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), mineral matter (MM), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), ether extract (EE) and protein (CP) respectively. The values are close to those found in the literature, exception for the protein that presented higher value, however the digestibility was relatively low. Cottonseed meal has high nutritional value, but with low digestible values.