Urinary excretion of 17-ketosteroids by normally fed and severely underfed boars.

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Two boars were fed normally to 19 weeks of age and then underfed so that their growth was severely restricted. Two other boars were underfed to 19 weeks of age and thus did not grow; they were then normally fed and the experiment was continued until they reached the same weight as the first two boars. The excretion of 17-ketosteroids (17-KS) in the urine of the four boars was measured on 2 days each week by separating their trimethylsilyl ethers by gas–liquid chromatography. The excretion of 17-KS reached a maximum of 9.0 mg per day for the boars which were fed normally in the first part of the experiment. Reducing their allocation of feed did not have an immediate effect on the excretion of total 17-KS, but after 4 weeks the excretion declined to about 1.0 mg per day. The 17-KS excretion of the boars which were underfed initially remained less than 0.5 mg per day, but increased when the feed allocation and hence growth rate of the boars increased. However, the excretion of 17-KS by these boars did not reach the levels recorded for the boars which had grown normally from the start of the experiment.