Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

C. Plitzner, W. Windisch and T. Ettle:

Experimental study on the requirement of threonine in finishing pigs

Summary

The objective of this study was to determine the threonine requirement of a modern growing pig crossbred from Austria in the finisher stage. For on average 48 days, 24 castrated male and 36 female pigs with a mean initial body weight of ±68 kg, were fed isonitrogenous diets (13.4% crude protein) supplemented with 6 levels of crystalline threonine. A dietary threonine concentration of 5.7 g/kg improved daily gains by about 9 percentage points (p<0.05) and the feed conversion ratio by about 8 percentage points, as compared to the control group (4.4 g/kg threonine), and therefore a clear dose-response effect was shown. The plasma urea concentration, carcass characteristics and meat quality showed no significant differences between the treatments. Based on the results of the growth performance, the optimum dietary Thr:Lys ratio in the finisher stage of pigs is estimated to be at least 0.68. Key words: Amino acids, threonine, finisher pigs, growth performance, carcass characteristics.