PSVIII-8 Effects of dietary L-arginine on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and meat quality in finishing pigs

Abstract

Abstract Arginine plays an important role in regulating arginine-nitric oxide synthase pathway, regulating lipid metabolism, and upregulating the mRNA levels of genes involved in fat synthesis in muscle in animals, and can therefore improve feed utilization for protein accretion. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of supplementation of different concentrations of L-arginine on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and meat quality in finishing pigs. A total of 120 crossbred [(Landrace × Yorkshire) × Duroc] pigs with an average initial body weight (BW) of 53.80 ± 1.86 kg were used in this 10-week feeding trial. The pigs were randomly allotted to 1 of 3 dietary treatments (5 pigs/pen and 8 replicates/treatment) in a randomized complete block design according to their sex (2 gilts and 3 barrows) and BW. Dietary treatments included: 1) CON, corn-soybean meal based basal diet (containing 13.81 MJ/kg metabolic energy and 0.95% lysine for entire experimental period); 2) LA0.5, CON + 0.5 g/kg L-arginine; 3) LA1.0, CON + 1.0 g/kg L-arginine. Individual body weight was measured initially and at the end of 5th and 10th week, feed consumption was recorded on pen basis during the experiment to determine growth performance. Meat samples were randomly taken from each pen (2 pigs per pen, 1 gilt and 1 barrow; 16 pigs per treatment) for determination of meat quality. All data were analysed using linear and quadratic contrast (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). The result showed that L-arginine did not affect pig growth performance and nutrient digestibility. However, dietary L-arginine supplementation linearly increased (P< 0.05) muscle marbling score, while linearly decreasing (P< 0.05) cooking loss and drip loss of pork muscle (Table 1). Results of present study demonstrated that 1.0 g/kg L-arginine would be beneficial in improving the meat quality in finishing pigs.