Effect of conditioning temperature on pelleting characteristics, nutrient digestibility and gut microbiota of sorghum-based diets for growing pigs

Abstract This study was conducted to determine the effect of the conditioning temperature on the pelleting characteristics, nutrient digestibility ( in vitro and in vivo ) and gut microbiota of sorghum-based diets for pigs. The experimental design included an evaluation of the effects of 5 conditioning temperatures (65, 70, 75, 80, 85℃) on sorghum-based diet pelleting. Increasing the conditioning temperature led to an increase of resistant starch (P  in vitro . Additionally, increasing the conditioning temperature produced a quadratic relationships between the apparent digestibility and ileum apparent digestibility of both CP and starch in vivo (P  Bifidobacterium sp. and Lactobacillus sp.) in the gut and feces as well as suppressed (P  Escherichia coli ), which effectively promoted the diversity of the gut microflora. Overall, these results indicate that 75 and 80℃ are suitable conditioning temperatures of sorghum-based diets for pigs.