Comparison of amino acid digestibility in feed ingredients for mini and commercial pigs

The objectives were to determine the apparent ileal digestibility and standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of CP and AA in feed ingredients and to develop prediction equations for estimating SID of feed ingredient for commercial pigs using data from mini pigs. Six 11-week old crossbred commercial pigs (31.5 ± 1.6 kg of BW; Landrace × Yorkshire) and six 20-week old mini pigs (31.0 ± 3.2 kg BW; Jeju Island’s native pig) were individually housed in pens and all pigs were surgically fitted with a T-cannula at the distal ileum. Each pig breed was assigned to 5 dietary treatments in a 5 × 10 incomplete Latin square design involving 10 periods, respectively. Four diets were prepared to contain soybean meal, corn gluten feed, copra meal, and sesame expellers as the sole source of N. An N-free diet was formulated to estimate basal ileal endogenous losses of CP and AA. There were no interactions between breed and feed ingredient for the digestibility of CP and AA. The digestibility of CP and AA, except Arg, His, Val, and Pro, were not different between mini pigs and commercial pigs. Prediction equations for SID CP and AA of commercial pigs using SID value of mini pigs were: SID of CP (%) =(1.02 × SID of CP in mini pigs) – 5.20 with r²= 0.97 and P < 0.05; SID of Lys (%) = (1.12 × SID of Lys in mini pigs) – 9.10 with r²= 0.98 and P < 0.05; and SID of Met (%) = (1.08 × SID of Met in mini pigs) – 4.27 with r²= 0.96 and P < 0.05. In conclusion, Jeju Island’s native mini pigs can be used for estimating AA digestibility in feed ingredients for commercial pigs.

Key words: feedstuff, prediction equations, swine