administrated. Moreover, Tatara et al. (2005) suggested that garlic or allicin administration induced positive effects on animals at early stages of their immune system development. Therefore, we hypothesized that the administration of fermented garlic powder exerted some beneficial effect on the immune system of the piglet in the current study.
Marbling and firmness scores were increased in fermented garlic powder treatments at low-nutrient-density diets when compared with HC and LC groups, which is in agreement with Chen et al. (2008), who reported that marbling and firmness scores were increased with the supplementation of garlic powder at the level of 1 g/kg when compared to diets without garlic powder. Kwon et al. (2005) also reported that a plant mixture that included garlic had positive effects on meat quality in growing–finishing pigs. Typically, the consumption of diets with high energy level or fat tends to increase the intramuscular fat (marbling) level (Pettigrew and Moser, 1991). The present study demonstrated that pigs fed low-nutrient-density diets supplemented with fermented garlic powder showed a higher marbling score compared to HC diet. Furthermore, feed intake was increased by fermented garlic powder treatments compared with HC and LC treatments throughout the experiment. Therefore, we hypothesized that increased marbling and firmness score might be an effect of stimulation of feed intake by dietary fermented garlic powder addition. However, the exact mechanism remains unknown, further research is necessary to investigate how fermented garlic powder affects meat quality.