were greater than those in feather meal published in NRC(2012), maybe because of differences in the producing processes. The low content of SID Met and Trp in EFM implies that
these may be limiting AA, which indicates that diets based on EFM protein may require more AA supplementation to meet
dietary requirements for AA.
Diet supplemented with EFM accelerated growing performance of nursery piglets compared with Control and DPSD, and
no difference was detected between EFMD and SDPPD in performance (Table 5). This indicates EFM is a promising alternative
animal protein source for nursery piglets to replace DPS or SDPP without compromising performance. It has been proposed
that the greater VFA concentration in the colon may provide a driving force for water and sodium absorption from the colonic
lumen (Roediger, 1994; Pierce et al., 2007), which can subsequently increase stool consistency (Argenzio and Whipp, 1979;
Cummings and Macfarlane, 1991). In the current study, the lower fecal score in EFMD on d 0–14 may be supported by the
greater VFA concentration in colon (Table 8).