Energy utilization of light and heavy weaned piglets subjected to different dietary energy levels

Abstract

-This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary metabolisable energy (ME: 3.25, 3.40, 3.55, or 3.70 Mcal kg −1 ) and weaning weight (WW: light 4.0±0.7 kg, and heavy: 6.3±0.6 kg) on productive response and energy utilization of weaned piglets. Sixty-four male piglets were housed in 32 metabolic cages (two animals per cage) during the first 14 d postweaning. At day 15, only one animal per cage was kept until day 28. Body composition, energy, and nutrient deposition rates and energy utilization efficiency were measured through a comparative slaughter procedure. Piglets with light WW had a poorer feed conversion ratio and lower weight gain and feed intake when expressed per live weight. Increased ME led to greater daily fat deposition in the empty bodies (defined as weighted mean of the carcass + organs + blood, no intestinal content), while light WW piglets had a reduced protein deposition. Light WW piglets increased heat production with increased ME, but no effect was seen for the heavy WW piglets. By contrast, heavy WW piglets increased empty body gross energy as ME increased, while no influence was observed on light WW piglets. Increasing dietary energy levels did not contribute to the subsequent growth performance of piglets that were lighter at weaning. The lack of interaction between weaning weight and dietary ME content on growth performance does not support the hypothesis that light piglets at weaning do not exhibit compensatory growth because of limitations in energy intake.

Effect of Dietary Energy and Weaning Weight on Nitrogen Balance and Energy Metabolizability of Piglets

“…Thus, pigs with low fiber numbers and low capacity for hypertrophy would consequently have lower muscle mass and lower requirement of nutrients, so that nutritional manipulations, such as increased dietary energy or the maintenance of the lysine:energy ratio, would have no effect on the ability of light piglets to take advantage of dietary N, as observed in this study. Jones et al (22) and Ribeiro et al (23) observed that heavy piglets deposit more protein and are more efficient at retaining nitrogen, supporting our results.…”

Effect of feeding different levels of protein and energy of Bureau of Indian Standard specification on production performance of crossbred (HS x GH) grower pig

“…In contrast to this, other researchers (Ribeiro et al, 2016;Lee et al, 2017) found that energy level did not affect growth performances in weaning piglets.…”

Effects of dietary energy and crude protein levels on growth performance, blood profiles, and nutrient digestibility in weaning pigs

“…Tokach et al [24] and Hastad et al [25] reported that decreasing dietary energy concentration had no effect on growth. Ribeiro et al [12] reported that reducing dietary ME from 3,700 kcal/kg to 3,250 kcal/kg (15.49 MJ/kg to 13.61MJ/kg) had no influence on growth performance. Beaulieu et al [10] reported that decreasing the digestible energy concentration from 3,650 kcal/kg to 3,350 kcal/kg (15.28 MJ/kg to 14.03MJ/kg) in the weaning pig diet increased BW, ADG, and ADFI linearly, while the G:F ratio decreased linearly.…”

“…Metabolizable energy (ME) requirements in editions of NRC differ, with an increased in ME from 1998 to 2012 [9,11]. However, other studies were reported that ME levels in diets did not affect growth performance in weaning pigs [12,13]. In general, fat and oil are important energy sources in pig diets [14], but weaning pigs do not utilize fat and oil very efficiently [8].…”