Effects of Anion Supplementation on Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, Meat Quality and Fecal Noxious Gas Content in Growing-Finishing Pigs (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION As we know, feeds are not only the source of nutrients but also contain a number of contaminants that may enter the food chain via animal products. Therefore, a considerable effort is being made to develop procedures to diminish the penetration of such substances into the animal body and subsequently contamination in animal products. During the last few decades, various studies have suggested that the use of un-convention feed supplement such as feed adsorbents is the most promising and economical approach to address this issue (Chen et al., 2005a, b; Dakovic et al., 2005). Recently studies also suggested that adsorbents (a variety of clays, bentonites, zeolites, phyllosilicates and synthetic aluminosilicates) can prevent or reduce the mycotoxicosis bioavailability and its detrimental effects on animals because of its binding effect with aflatoxins, zearalenone and the ammonium, (Abdel-Wahhab et al., 1999; Abdel-Wahhab et al., 2002; Abbes et al., 2006). Similarly, our previous study also suggested that an alumininosilicate mineral product (61.90% Si[O.sub.2] 23.19% [Al.sub.2][O.sub.3], 3.97% [Fe.sub.2][O.sub.3] and 3.36% [Na.sub.2]O) can be used as antibiotic alternative at the levels of 0.5 and 2.0% (Chen et al., 2005a, b). Our study was concerned about one of the alumininosilicate mineral product marketed under the trade name Anion (Eunjinbio system Choongnam Cheonan, Korea), which is mainly comprised of 72.60% Si[O.sub.2], 8.18% [Al.sub.2][O.sub.3], 9.42% [Fe.sub.2][O.sub.3], 5.25% [K.sub.2]O and 1.41% [Na.sub.2]O (Manufacturers specifications, provided by Korea chemistry association).