Estimation of the standardized ileal digestible lysine requirement and optimal sulphur amino acids to lysine ratio for 30–50 kg pigs

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to determine the standardized ileal digestible (SID) lysine (Lys) requirement and the ideal SID sulphur amino acids (SAA) to Lys ratio for 30–50 kg crossbred pigs. In experiment 1, a total of 72 crossbred pigs with an average initial body weight (BW) of 28.9 kg were allotted to one of six dietary treatments in a randomized complete block design. Each diet was assigned to six pens containing two pigs each. Six diets were obtained by supplementing graded levels of L-Lysine∙HCl to create six dietary levels of SID Lys (0.70%, 0.80%, 0.90%, 1.00%, 1.10% and 1.20%). Responses of weight gain (ADG) and gain:feed (G:F) to increasing the SID Lys content of the diet fitted well with the curvilinear-plateau model; whereas, for plasma urea nitrogen (PUN) two-slope linear broken-line model was well fitted. The optimal SID Lys requirement for the pigs of this period was 1.10%. Experiment 2 was a dose–response study using SID Met+Cys to Lys ratios of 50%, 55%, 60%, 65%, 70% and 64%. A total of 72 crossbred pigs with initial BW of 32.9 kg were randomly allotted to receive one of the six diets. Diets 1–5 were formulated to contain 1.0% SID Lys to be second limiting in Lys and diet 6 contained 1.11% SID Lys to be adequate in Lys. The average optimal SID SAA:Lys ratio for maximal ADG and G:F and minimal PUN was 65.2% using curvilinear-plateau and linear broken-line models.