A chemically defined diet for maximal growth of pigs.
Three growth assays and one balance experiment were conducted to determine the optimal mixture of dietary amino acids for 10-kg pigs fed a chemically defined diet. Pigs were meal fed at 0700 and 1700 h in all experiments. Increasing all indispensable amino acids by 20% from their original levels improved weight gain and gain:feed ratio to levels equivalent to those of pigs fed a 20% protein corn-soybean meal-dried whey positive control diet. Replacing the glutamate-glycine-proline dispensable amino acid mixture with a complete mixture of dispensable amino acids (i.e., glutamate, glycine, proline, glutamine, serine, alanine, aspartate and asparagine) did not improve growth rate. A balance study showed that retention of nitrogen and energy (percentage of intake) from the final purified diet was superior to that of pigs fed the corn-soybean meal-dried whey diet. Metabolizable energy and metabolizable energy corrected for nitrogen retention of the final purified amino acid diet were determined to be 14.43 and 13.96 MJ/kg diet, respectively. The chemically defined diet developed here for young pigs provides a means of studying nutrient utilization in the pig under conditions in which all nutrients are essentially 100% bioavailable.
Chung
T K
TK
Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana 61801.
Baker
D H
DH
D000596:Amino Acids / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D000821:Animal Feed; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D005526:Food, Formulated; D013552:Swine / Q000254:growth & development*
D000596:Amino Acids