title: Histidine maintenance requirement and efficiency of its utilization in young pigs.
abstract: An experiment was conducted in young pigs (initial BW 10.1 kg) to estimate the maintenance requirement for histidine and its efficiency of utilization for protein accretion using a comparative slaughter technique. Three groups of six pigs each were fed a purified diet supplying 0, 14 or 56 mg histidine per kg BW0.75. Following 21 d of feeding, pigs were killed for whole body compositional analysis. A representative group of six pigs was killed at the beginning of the experiment. Retention of histidine and total N were the main criteria of response. Histidine retention (R2 = 0.73) and N retention (R2 = 0.78) were linear functions of histidine intake (p < 0.001). Histidine requirement for zero histidine retention was 15.5 mg/kg BW0.7, whereas histidine required for zero N retention was 4.1 mg/kg BW0.75. At zero histidine retention, the pigs retained daily 82 mg N/kg BW0.75, presumably due to the degradation of histidine-rich compounds such as haemoglobin and/or carnosine. The slope of the regression line relating histidine retention to N retention indicated that 105 mg of histidine was deposited per gram of total N which was considerably less than the estimated histidine concentration in body protein (179 mg/g N). Based on the slopes of regression equations for histidine and N retention, marginal efficiency of histidine utilization was calculated to be 0.94 and 1.34, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Research Institute of Animal Production, Slovak Agricultural Research Centre, Nitra, Slovakia. jheger@tiscali.cz
authors.forename: Jaroslav
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heger
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Patrás
authors.forename: Sona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nitrayová
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dolesová
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sommer
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology; D004044:Dietary Proteins / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000378:metabolism; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D006639:Histidine / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D013552:Swine / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D004044:Dietary Proteins; D006639:Histidine; D009584:Nitrogen