The recent renewed interest in the feeding of fibrous feedstuffs to pigs has been precipitated by a number of economic and welfare issues. To reduce the costs of pig meat production, farmers have increased the use of cheaper ingredients which tend to contain a high proportion of fibre. The feeding of finely ground cereals in intensive systems has been linked with high rates of mortality resultant from gastric lesions. Adding materials rich in fibre can be beneficial in this respect through its effects on the gut environment.

The addition of fibrous feeds to a diet will however have the effect of diluting the energy concentration of the diet and it is likely that counterbalancing levels of high energy materials will need to be added in order to maintain energy levels.

Fibre digestion in the ruminant is known to be depressed by the addition of lipid to a diet and it may be that fermentation in the hind gut of the pig is similarly affected. Tallow, a saturated fat, and maize oil, an unsaturated oil, were used to investigate the effect of saturation of lipid on the digestibility of fibre from wheat bran. The effect of level of wheat bran on fibre digestibility was also examined.