Effects of Dietary Energy Intake Levels on Growth Performance and Body Composition of Finishing Barrows and Gilts

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of different energy intake on physical and chemical composition in body fractions, growth performance and meat characteristics of finishing barrows and gilts. A total of twenty six crossbred (Landracex Yorkshire) consisting of 16 barrows and 13 gilts were used in this study. The animals were allocated by sex to two treatments to form a 2x2 factorial arrangement. The respective factors were sex (barrow and gilt) and dietary energy intake (1.8 and 3.0 times energy for maintenance). Pigs were kept in individual pens and had ad libitum access to feed and water from the start of the experiment at 52.4±1.9 kg until they reached 109.9±4.4 kg live weight. The growth performance, physical composition and meat characteristics of finishing pigs were not greatly affected by the sex. However, higher fat tissue weight in the carcass was observed in barrows compared with gilts (p<0.05). Higher proportions of water and protein (p<0.05), and lower lipid proportion (p<0.01) in the empty body and carcass were observed in gilts compared with barrows, while protein proportion in lean tissue was not affected by the sex. In fat tissue, only protein proportion was higher in gilts compared with barrows (p<0.05). Although, growth performance, physical and chemical compositions in body fractions were greatly affected, final body or carcass weight was partly affected by the energy intake In addition, loin characteristics such as shear force and loin eye area were partly influenced by energy intake levels. Therefore, the present results showed that growth performance and meat characteristics were not influenced but chemical body composition was greatly influenced by the sex. Growth performance, physical and chemical compositions in body fractions were greatly affected, whereas meat characteristics were partly affected by the energy intake levels.