title: Valine requirement of nursery pigs.
abstract: Six experiments were conducted to determine the true digestible valine requirement of 5- to 20-kg pigs. In Exp. 1, a valine-deficient diet for 5- to 10-kg pigs was developed and validated in terms of growth performance in response to supplemental L-valine. A different basal diet was validated for 10- to 20-kg pigs in Exp. 2. Both diets were demonstrated to be deficient in valine and to support performance equivalent to typical nursery diets when fortified with L-valine. In Exp. 3, true ileal digestibility of valine in the two basal diets was determined in eight pigs fitted with a simple T-cannula at the terminal ileum. Another four pigs received an enzymatically hydrolyzed casein-based diet to determine endogenous contributions to collected ileal digesta. The two diets were found to have true valine digestibilities of 82% (5- to 10-kg pigs) and 86% (10- to 20-kg pigs). In Exp. 4, 80 weaned pigs (5.8 kg) were offered the basal diet fortified with five incremental doses (0.08%) of L-valine. Weight gain increased quadratically (P < 0.05) with increasing levels of valine. Broken-line analysis revealed a true digestible valine requirement of 0.86 +/- 0.03%. In Exp. 5, the true digestible valine requirement of 10- to 20-kg pigs was estimated with 120 pigs (10.9 kg) using the second basal diet fortified with six incremental doses (0.05%) of L-valine. The data suggested a digestible valine requirement level of about 0.775%, which was reevaluated in Exp. 6, wherein pigs did not respond to levels of digestible valine higher than 0.775%. In conclusion, requirement estimates were 2.50 and 2.22 g of true digestible valine per megacalorie of ME for 5- to 10- and 10- to 20-kg pigs, respectively. These empirical estimates are in close agreement with recent estimates of the National Research Council Subcommittee on Swine Nutrition of 2.48 and 2.11 g of true digestible valine per megacalorie of ME, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana 61801, USA. yanni@sca-us.com
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mavromichalis
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Kerr
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Parr
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Albin
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Gabert
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary; D004044:Dietary Proteins / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004063:Digestion; D005260:Female; D007082:Ileum / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D013552:Swine / Q000502:physiology*; D014633:Valine / Q000502:physiology*; D014886:Weaning
chemical_list: D004044:Dietary Proteins; D014633:Valine