Authors : Taiji Wang, Mark A. Crenshaw, Naresh Regmi, Timothy Armstrong, John R. Blanton and Shengfa F. Liao
Abstract: Although, dietary lysine requirement of pigs at late finishing stage is lower than that of younger pigs, it is the last but not least stage when producers can use nutritional measures to maximize pigs’ growth performance and carcass quantity and quality. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary lysine on growth performance and carcass characteristics of late-stage finishing pigs (large white x landrace; body weight 94.4±6.7 kg). Nine barrows were randomly allotted to 3 treatments (3 pigs/treatment). Three corn and soybean-meal based diets were formulated according to the NRC nutrient requirements except for lysine whose concentrations (as-fed basis) were 4.30, 7.10 and 9.80 g kg-1 for diets 1 (lysine-deficient), 2 (lysine-adequate) and 3 (lysine-excess), respectively. The feeding trial lasted 5 weeks. Pigs fed diet 2 or 3 had higher average daily gain than pigs fed diet 1. Both hot and chilled carcass weights tended to increase linearly with increasing dietary lysine concentration. Loin eye areas of pigs fed diets 2 and 3 were increased by 18% and 9%, respectively when compared with pigs fed diet 1. Both trimmed and untrimmed ham weights of pigs fed diets 2 and 3 were increased by 21% compared to the pigs fed diet 1. Both dressing percentage and total lean cut weight increased linearly with increasing dietary lysine concentration. The back-fat thickness, belly weight and visual scores of loin color and loin marbling, however were not affected by dietary lysine concentration. The data indicated that there is still an opportunity for further improving the overall carcass merit via increasing dietary lysine supply for the pigs at late finishing stage which suggested that more dietary lysine supply over the NRC recommended level might benefit swine and meat industries by improving the market value of the pork.
Taiji Wang, Mark A. Crenshaw, Naresh Regmi, Timothy Armstrong, John R. Blanton and Shengfa F. Liao, 2015. Effect of Dietary Lysine Fed to Pigs at Late Finishing Stage on the Market-Value Associated Carcass Characteristics. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 14: 232-236.