Open AccessAddition of arginine and leucine to low or normal protein diets: performance, carcass characteristics and intramuscular fat of finishing pigs
Author(s) -
Núria Tous,
R. Lizardo,
B. Vilà,
M. Gispert,
M. Font-i-Furnols,
E. EsteveGarcía
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
spanish journal of agricultural research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 2171-9292
pISSN - 1695-971X
DOI - 10.5424/sjar/2016144-9351
Subject(s) - loin , marbled meat , intramuscular fat , feed conversion ratio , leucine , arginine , zoology , biology , weight gain , dietary protein , chemistry , food science , amino acid , endocrinology , body weight , medicine , biochemistry
The effect of dietary crude protein (CP) reduction, supplementation with arginine or leucine on intramuscular fat (IMF) content was evaluated in (Landrace × Duroc) × Pietrain pigs. One-hundred and eight barrows (67 ± 4 kg) were assigned to six diets (n=6 pens of 3 pigs each): four normal CP diets containing 16% CP from 60 to 90 kg and 13% CP from 90 to 115 kg live weight (normal protein; normal protein high Arg, normal protein high Leu or normal protein high Arg and Leu) and two low CP diets containing 14% CP from 60 to 90 kg and 11.8% CP from 90 to 115 kg live weight (with or without supplementation of both amino acids). The high Leu and Arg diets were supplemented to obtain ratios of standard ileal digestible Leu/Lys and Arg/Lys of 4 and 2, respectively. While feed to gain ratio tended to increase (p<0.05), final weight (p<0.01), average daily feed intake (ADFI) (p<0.05) and average daily gain (ADG) (p<0.01) were reduced in animals fed low-protein diets supplemented with Arg and Leu compared to the ones fed low-protein diet unsupplemented. Marbling and IMF content in loin were reduced when Arg was supplemented (p<0.05) in normal protein diets. Supplementing these diets with Arg also reduced belly weight (p<0.01) and increased lean meat percentage (p<0.05). Contrary to the initial hypothesis, reduction of CP or dietary supplementation with Leu had no effect on IMF content and supplementation with Arg reduced it