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Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of germanium biotite (GB) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and fecal gas emission in pigs. In Exp 1., a total of one hundred nursery pigs (initial body weight 13.12 ± 0.15㎏) were used in a 21 d growth assay. The five treatments were control (CON, basal diet), GB0.5-200(basal diet ＋ 0.5％ GB, 200mesh), GB1.0-200 (basal diet ＋ 1.0％ GB, 200mesh), GB0.5-325 (basal diet ＋ 0.5％ GB, 325mesh), GB1.0-325 (basal diet ＋ 1.0％ GB, 325mesh). Each treatment had four replicates with five pigs per replicate. ADG, ADFI ad gain／feed were not significantly different among the treatments. Fecal NH_(３)-N concentration of pigs fed the GB325 diet was lower than that of pigs fed the GB200 diet (P＝0.01). The GB treatments reduced fecal volatile fatty acids significantly compared to the CON (propionic acid, P＝0.01；butyric acid, P＝0.01； acetic acid, P＝0.02). Especially, fecal propionic acid concentration of pigs fed the GB325 diets was lower than that of pigs fed the GB200 diets (P＝0.02). In Exp 2., a total of seventy five pigs (initial body weight 21.18 ± .15㎏) were used in a 28 d growth assay. The treatments were same as described for Exp. 1. Each treatment had five replicates with three pigs per replicate. The GB1.0 treatments significantly increased the ADG compared to the GG0.5 treatments (P＝0.03). The DM and N digestibility of pigs fed the GB1.0 diets were higher than that for pigs fed the GB0.5 diets (p＝0.01). Also, the Ca digestibility of pigs fed the GB diets than that for pigs fed the GB0.5 diets (p＝0.01). The fecal NH_(３)-N concentrations for the GB treatments were lower than that for the CON (P＝0.01). The GE325 tratments significantly decreased the fecal NH_(３)-N concentration compared to the GB200 treatments (P＝0.03). the fecal butyric acid concentration for the GB325 treatments was lower than that for the GB200 treatment (P＝0.04). In conclusion, the results obtained from these feeding trials suggest that the dietary GB for nursery pigs affects fecal noxious gas emission. In growing pigs, dietary GB was effective to improve ADG and decrease fecal noxious gas emission.
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