Forty-eight (24 barrows and 24 females) Landrace x Large White pigs (averaging 22.69 kg of initial body weight) were assigned to four treatments to evaluate the effect of feeding sunflower cake (SC) on performance and carcass characteristics for swine in the growing and finishing phases. The following increasing dietary levels of sunflower cake (SC) were used: (0, 5, 10 and 15%). Daily weight gain (DWG), daily feed intake (DFI) and feed:gain ratio (FGR)in the growing I (20 to 50 kg body weight), growing II (50 to 80 kg body weight) and finishing phases (80 to 100 kg body weight) were evaluated. At slaughter, the following carcass characteristics were evaluated: carcass weight (CW), carcass yield (CY), backfat depth (BD), muscle depth (MD), loin eye area (LA), carcass length (LC), carcass meat yield (YPC) and carcass meat (MC). No significant differences were detected among treatments in all phases, but significant effects on DWG for barrows in all phases and on DFI for barrows in the finishing phase and overall period (20 to 100 kg body weight) were observed, with the best values of DWG and DFI. No significant effect on carcass characteristics among treatments was observed. The barrows showed greater values of BD, MC and LC than females, that had greater YPC than barrows. It is possible to include up 15% SC in swine diet during the growing and finishing phases to obtain good results of performance and carcass characteristics. The best economic efficiency rate was obtained with the inclusion of 15% SC in the diet.
carcass; growth; performance; sunflower; sunflower cake; swine
