Czech J. Anim. Sci., 2007, 52(12):447-455 | DOI: 10.17221/2334-CJAS

Effects of different dietary threonine levels on growth and slaughter performance in finishing pigs

C. Plitzner1, T. Ettle1, S. Handl2, P. Schmidt3, W. Windisch1
1 Department of Food Science and Technology, Division of Animal Food and Nutrition, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
2 Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Science, Institute of Nutrition, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
3 Department of Pathobiology, Institute of Pathology and Forensic Veterinary Medicine, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria

The objective of this study was to determine the threonine (Thr) requirement of a modern crossbred growing pig from Austria in the finisher stage (67 to 113 kg body weight). For on average 50 days, 30 castrated male and 30 female pigs were fed isonitrogenous diets (135 g/kg crude protein, 8.0 g/kg lysine) supplemented with increasing levels of crystalline Thr. Total dietary Thr contents (g/kg) were 4.9 (basal diet), 5.0, 5.4, 5.8, 6.1, 6.5, corresponding to a Thr:Lys ratio of about 0.60, 0.64, 0.68, 0.73, 0.76, 0.81. Dietary Thr concentration of 5.4 g/kg improved daily gains by about 15 percentage points (P < 0.05) and the feed conversion ratio by about 7 percentage points, compared to pigs fed the basal diet (4.9 g/kg Thr). Increasing dietary Thr above 5.4 g/kg had no further effects on performance. The blood plasma urea concentration was minimized at a dietary Thr concentration of 6.1 g/kg. For all treatments there was a low effect of dietary Thr supply on carcass quality. Goblet cell density in the small intestine and colon did not differ between different levels of dietary Thr. Based on the results of growth performance, an optimum total dietary Thr:Lys ratio in the finisher stage of pigs ranges from 0.66 to 0.68.

Keywords: threonine; pigs; urea; goblet cell; requirement

Published: December 31, 2007  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Plitzner C, Ettle T, Handl S, Schmidt P, Windisch W. Effects of different dietary threonine levels on growth and slaughter performance in finishing pigs. Czech J. Anim. Sci. 2007;52(12):447-455. doi: 10.17221/2334-CJAS.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Ball R.O., Law G., Bertolo R.F.P., Pencharz P.B. (1999): Adequate oral threonine is critical for mucin production and mucosal growth by neonatal piglet gut. In: Lobely G.E., White A., MacRae J.C. (eds.): Proc. 8 th International Symposium on Protein Metabolism and Nutrition. Wageningen Pers., Wageningen, Netherlands. 31 pp.
    2. Boisen S. (1997): Ideal protein - and its suitability to characterize protein quality in pig feeds. A review. Acta Agr. Scand. Sect. a, 47, 31-38. Go to original source...
    3. Cline T.R., Cromwell, G.L., Crenshaw T.D., Ewan R.C., Hamilton C.R., Lewis A.J., Mahan D.C., Southern L.L. (2000): Further assessment of dietary lysine requirement of finishing gilts. J. Anim. Sci., 78, 987-992. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    4. Cohen R.S., Tanksley T.D.J. (1977): Threonine requirement of growing and finishing swine fed sorghumsoybean meal diets. J. Anim. Sci., 45, 1079-1083. Go to original source...
    5. Coma J., Carrion D., Zimmermann D.R. (1995): Use of plasma urea nitrogen as a rapid response criterion to determine the lysine requirement of pigs. J. Anim. Sci., 73, 472-481. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    6. Faure M., Moennoz D., Montigon F., Mettraux C., Breuillé D., Ballèvre O. (2005): Dietary threonine restriction specifically reduces intestinal mucin synthesis in rats. J. Nutr., 135, 486-491. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    7. Fuller M.F., McWilliam R., Wang T.C., Giles L.R. (1989): The optimum dietary amino acid pattern for growing pigs. 2. Requirement for maintenance and for tissue protein accretion. Brit. J. Nutr., 62, 255-267. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    8. Fuller M.F., Wang T.C. (1987): Amino acid requirements of the growing pig. In: Barnett J.L. (ed.): Manipulating Pig Production. Australian Pig Science Assoc., Werribee, Australia.
    9. GfE (1987): Energie- und Nährstoffbedarf landwirtschaftlicher Nutztiere. Nr. 4 Schweine. DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
    10. GfE (2006): Empfehlungen zur Energie- und Nähr stoffversorgung von Schweinen. Nr. 10 Schweine. DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
    11. Han I.K., Lee J.H. (2000): The role of synthetic amino acids in monogastric animal production. Asian-Australas. J. Anim. Sci., 13, 543-560. Go to original source...
    12. Kohn R.A., Dinneen M.M., Russek-Cohen E. (2005): Using blood urea nitrogen to predict nitrogen excretion and efficiency of nitrogen utilization in cattle, sheep, goats, horses, pigs, and rats. J. Anim. Sci., 83, 879-889. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    13. Lenis N.P., Van Diepen (1990): Amino acid requirement of pigs. 3. requirement for apparent digestible threonine of pigs in different stages of growth. Neth. J. Agric. Sci., 38, 609-622. Go to original source...
    14. Lenis N.P., Van Diepen J.Th.M., Goedhart P.W. (1990): Amino acid requirement of pigs. 1. requirements for methionine + cystine, threonine and tryptophan of fast-growing boars and gilts, fed ad libitum. Neth. J. Agric. Sci., 38, 577-595. Go to original source...
    15. Lien K.A., Sauer W.C., Fenton M. (1997): Mucin output in ileal digesta of pigs fed a protein-free diet. Z. Ernährungswiss., 36, 182-190. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    16. Naumann C., Bassler R. (1997): Die chemische Untersuchung von Futtermitteln. In: Methodenbuch, Band III, 3. Ausgabe, 4. Ergänzungslieferung, VDLUFAVerlag Darmstadt, germany.
    17. NRC (1998): Nutrient Requirements of Swine, 8th revised ed. Nat. Acad. Press, Washington.
    18. Pedersen C., Lindberg J.E., Boisen S. (2003): Determination of the optimal dietary threonine:lysine ratio for finishing pigs using three different methods. Livest. Prod. Sci., 82, 233-243. Go to original source...
    19. Plitzner C., Ettle T., Windisch W. (2006): Experimental study on the requirement of threonine in finishing pigs. Bodenkultur, 57, 161-168.
    20. Rademacher M., Sauer W.C., Jansmann A.J.M. (2001): Standardized ileal digestible amino acids for pigs. Degussa AG, Hanau-Wolfgang, Germany.
    21. Robbins K.R., Norton H.W., Baker D.H. (1979): Estimation of nutrient requirements from growth data. J. Nutr., 109, 1710-1714. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    22. Saldana C.I., Knabe D.A., Qwen K.Q., Burgoon K.G., Gregg E.J. (1994): Digestible threonine requirements of starter and finisher pigs. J. Anim. Sci., 72, 144-150. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    23. SAS (2002): Statistical Analysis System Inc. SAS/STAT User's Guide, Version 9. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC.
    24. Schaart M.W., Schierbeek H., Van der Schoor S.R.D., Stoll B., Burrin D.G., Reeds P.J., Van Goudoever J.B. (2005): Threonine utilization is high in the intestine of piglets. J. Nutr., 135, 765-770. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    25. Schutte J.B., Jong J., Smink W., Koch F. (1997): Threonine requirement of growing pigs (50 to 95 kg) in relation to diet composition. Anim. Sci., 64, 155-161. Go to original source...
    26. Stoll B., Henry J., Reeds P.J., Yu H., Jahoor F., Burrin D. G. (1998): Catabolism dominates the first-pass intestinal metabolism of dietary essential amino acids in milk protein-fed piglets. J. Nutr., 128, 606-614. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    27. Taylor A.J., Cole D.J.A., Lewis D. (1982): Amino acids requirement for growing pigs, 3. Threonine. Anim. Prod., 34, 1-8. Go to original source...
    28. Van Lunen T.A., Cole D.J.A. (2001): Energy-amino acid interactions in modern pig genotypes. In: Garnsworthy P.C. (ed.): Recent Developments in Pig Nutrition 3. Nottingham University Press., Nottingham, UK.
    29. Van der Schoor S.R.D., Reeds P.J., Stoll B., Henry J.F., Rosenberger J.R., Burrin D.G., Van Goudoever J.B. (2002): The high metabolic cost of a functional gut. Gastroenterology, 123, 1931-1940. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    30. Yen H.T., Cole D.J.A., Lewis D. (1986): Amino acid requirement of growing pigs. 7 The response of pigs from 25 to 55 kg live weight to dietary ideal protein. Anim. Prod., 43, 141-154. Go to original source...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY NC 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content