Abstract
Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary metabolizable energy (ME; 3.40, 3.60, or 3.80 Mcal/kg) and weaning weight (WW; 4.5 ± 0.4 and 6.7 ± 0.5 kg) on nitrogen balance (NB) and gross energy metabolizability in weanling piglets. In total, 32 barrow piglets were individually housed in metabolic cages for 28 d in a 2x3 factorial arrangement with five barrows per treatment. Only light and 3.80 ME and heavy and 3.40 ME/kg treatments had six barrows per treatment each. The diets were formulated to maintain a constant nutrient to ME ratio. Nitrogen balance was evaluated in three periods through total collection of feces and urine. Heavy piglets had 14% greater N intake, absorption, and retention in starter and total periods (P<0.05). The increasing in the levels of dietary ME linearly augmented N intake, absorption, and retention during starter and total periods (P<0.05). The dietary ME levels linearly increased energy metabolizability in all periods (P<0.05). In conclusion, heavy weaned piglets had better efficiency in nitrogen retention. Besides, increasing dietary ME levels can improve the N retention and the metabolizability of dietary energy.
Highlights
One of the most important zootechnical indexes used to estimate the efficiency of pig production system is the number of piglets/born/sow/year
This study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary metabolizable energy (ME; 3.40, 3.60, or 3.80 Mcal/kg) and weaning weight (WW; 4.5 ± 0.4 and 6.7 ± 0.5 kg) on nitrogen balance (NB) and gross energy metabolizability in weanling piglets
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the dietary energy concentration and weaning weight on nitrogen balance and energy metabolizability in order to determine if there is any interaction between these factors; in other words, if light piglets at weaning could improve the nitrogen retention and metabolizability of energy when fed an energy-nutrient-dense diet when compared with heavy piglets at weaning
Summary
One of the most important zootechnical indexes used to estimate the efficiency of pig production system is the number of piglets/born/sow/year. The increase in the number of born piglets reduces the cost per housed sow, increasing the system profitability. The reasons of the poor growth performance of light piglets are still unclear; they must be related to the intrauterine competition for nutrients[4, 5], which results in different degrees of restriction of embryo growth[6, 7]. The factors related to the environmental, nutritional, management, and health status during the suckling period can exacerbate the poor performance of light piglets from weaning to market weight. As the energy intake is the main factor that limit the nutrient intake in weaning piglets, the starter diet is usually concentrated in energy and amino acid to guarantee a better growth performance and allow the maximum protein deposition. Previous studies did not show any performance improvement when dietary energy density was increased[10,11,12], but greater body fat deposition was observed[12]
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