Effect of supplemental levels of chromium picolinate on the growth performance, serum traits, carcass characteristics and lipid metabolism of growing-finishing pigs

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of chromium picolinate supplementation on growth performance, carcass characteristics and lipid metabolism of growing-finishing pigs. Sixty Landrace ✕ Yorkshire ✕ Duroc (LYD) pigs with a mean initial body weight of 46·65 (s.e. 6·72) kg were randomly allocated into three groups with two replicates. They were supplemented with 0 , 200, or 400 μg/kg (ppb) chromium in the organic form of chromium picolinate for 90 days. Supplementation with chromium picolinate in the pigs’ ration improved their growth performance, enhanced average daily gain (P < 0·05), and increased their food consumption, especially in the 200 ppb group ( P > 0·05). Chromium picolinate supplementation also improved carcass characteristics, as the average back fat thickness was reduced and the loin-eye area was enhanced ( P < 0·05). The serum chromium concentration in the chromium picolinate supplemented groups was approximately twice that of the controls ( P < 0·05). Supplementation with chromium also markedly reduced serum total cholesterol, triacylglycerol (TG) and urea concentrations in the pig serum ( P < 0·05). Serum insulin was significantly decreased in the 400 ppb group, while serum glucose was decreased in the 200 ppb group ( P < 0·05). Very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) was reduced and low density lipoprotein (LDL) was increased in the chromium supplementation group. Meanwhile, the high density lipoprotein-cholesterol and VLDL-cholesterol were markedly increased, while LDL-cholesterol was significantly diminished ( P < 0·05) in the 200 ppb group. The adipocyte diameter and volume in the chromium-supplemented groups tended to be larger than in the control ( P = 0·07). In vitro studies indicated that incorporation of [u, 14C]glucose into total lipids (P < 0·05) was increased by chromium supplementation. However, there were no lipolysis differences among the groups (P > 0·05). The carcasses of the pigs that received the chromium supplemented ration contained less oleic acid (C18 : 1) and total unsaturated fatty acids (P < 0·05). On the other hand, the total saturated fatty acid content was higher than that of the controls (P < 0·05). Results in this study demonstrate that chromium picolinate supplementation in pigs has several beneficial effects.

Effects of Dietary Chromium (III) Picolinate on Growth Performance, Respiratory Rate, Plasma Variables, and Carcass Traits of Pigs Fed High-Fat Diets

“…Dietary fat has been reported to elevate blood insulin and glucose [48,49]. Supplemental Cr lowered circulating insulin concentration in rats fed HFD [12] and in swine [28]. In the present study, plasma insulin concentration of pigs fed HFD linearly decreased by Cr supplementation on d 14.…”

“…Since Page et al [25] reported that the supplemental Cr increased LMA and percentage of muscling but decreased the tenth rib backfat, similar effects of supplemental Cr have been demonstrated [26,28]. In other studies, contrastingly, supplemental Cr was ineffective in modulating carcass leanness or fatness of pigs [29][30][31].…”

“…Supplemental Cr as Cr (III) picolinate (CrPic) has been reported to increase leanness and/or decrease fat deposition of pigs in some studies [25][26][27][28] but not in others [29][30][31]. In a commercial environment, dietary Cr has been suggested to be more effective in animals with high propensity for body fat deposition [32].…”

Effects of Graded Levels of Chromium Methionine on Performance, Carcass Traits, Meat Quality, Fatty Acid Profiles of Fat, Tissue Chromium Concentrations, and Antioxidant Status in Growing-Finishing Pigs

“…While the present results showed that graded levels of dietary chromium as CrMet have no significant effect on growth performance in either the individual period or total experimental period in pigs as body weights grow from 30 to 100 kg, as well as carcass traits, nevertheless, pigs fed 200 μg/kg chromium as CrMet had a numerically greater value in LMA than the control (P<0.10). A tendency to increase in LMA may be due to increased insulin activity by chromium which stimulates amino acid transport and protein synthesis in muscle cells [31], or increased secretions or mRNA levels of growth hormone and insulin like growth factor-I which accelerate protein anabolism [20,32,33]. Moreover, the present result of a numerical increase in the 10th rib fat in 200 μg/kg chromium groups (P<0.10) indicated that chromium addition may promote adipose lipogenesis, which was demonstrated by Lien et al [34] who found that long-term exposure to chromium picolinate (CrPic) in growing-finishing pigs increased the activities of adipose tissue lipogenesis related enzymes.…”

Dietary nano-chromium tripicolinate increases feed intake and decreases plasma cortisol in finisher gilts during summer

“…However, the effects of dietary Cr on fasting glucose concentrations in pigs are inconsistent. Some studies reported that dietary Cr significantly reduces fasting glucose (Lien et al 2001;Wang et al 2001Wang et al , 2009b, whereas others reported no effect (Amoikon et al 1995;Matthews et al 2001). Amoikon et al (1995) reported that CrPic increased insulin sensitivity as assessed by increased glucose clearance rate and decreased glucose half-life during a glucose tolerance test and insulin challenge test in pigs.…”