An experiment was conducted in young pigs (initial BW 10.1kg) 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 56mg 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 (p0.001). Histidine requirement for zero histidine retention was 15.5mg/kg BW0.75, whereas histidine required for zero N retention was 4.1mg/kg BW0.75. At zero histidine retention, the pigs retained daily 82mg 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 105mg of histidine was deposited per gram of total N which was considerably less than the estimated histidine concentration in body protein (179mg/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.
CITATION STYLE
Heger, J., Patrs, P., Nitrayov, S., Dolesov, P., & Sommer, A. (2007). Histidine maintenance requirement and efficiency of its utilization in young pigs. Archives of Animal Nutrition, 61(3), 179–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450390701318325
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