Effects of Low Crude Protein Diets Supplemented with Synthetic Amino Acids on Performance, Nutrient Utilization and Carcass Characteristics in Finishing Pigs Reared Using a Phase Feeding Regimen

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding a low CP diet supplemented with synthetic amino acids on performance, nutrient utilization and carcass characteristics of finishing pigs fed under a three-phase feeding regimen. Ninety-six finishing pigs (Landrace$\times$Large White$\times$Duroc), $55.75kg{\pm}0.65$ of initial body weight, were blocked by weight and sex and allotted to four dietary treatments in a randomized block design. There were six pens per treatment and four pigs per pen. Pigs were fed a 16%-14%-12% CP (for phase I-II-III, respectively), sequence of diets. Dietary treatments were 1) Control, 2) Con+L (a sequence of diets reduced in CP by l percentage unit with lysine (L) supplementation, 3) Con+LMT (a sequence of diets reduced in CP by 2 percentage unit with LYS, methionine (MET) and threonine (THE) supplementation) and 4) Con+LMTT (a sequence of diets reduced in CP by 3 percentage unit with LYS, MET, THR and tryptophan (TRP) supplementation). The finishing period (55 to 105 kg) was divided into three phases (55 to 72 kg, 72 to 90 kg and 90 to 105 kg). Pigs fed either the control or Con+L diet grew faster (p<0.05) than pigs fed the Con-LMT or Con+LMTT diet. There was no difference in ADFI among dietary treatments. Phosphorus (P) digestibility was lowest in the control group and highest in the Con+LMTT group (p<0.05). Within each phase, no significant differences in dry matter (DM) and CP digestibilities were found. Although some amino acid digestibilities were affected by dietary treatments, digestibilities of essential amino acids (EAA), non-essential amino acids (NEAA) and total amino acid were not significantly influenced by dietary treatments. For the entire experiment periods, Con+L, Con+LMT and Con+LMTT treatments resulted in 13.4, 18.8 and 21.6% lower total N excretion compared with the control. Con+LMT and Con+LMTT treatments showed significantly lower BUN concentration compared with the control and Con+L treatment (p<0.05), but there was no significant difference in BUN concentration between pigs fed the control and Con+L treatment or between pigs fed Con+LMT and Con+LMTT treatments (p>0.05). Carcass length, backfat thickness and carcass grade were not significantly affected by dietary treatments (p>0.05). In conclusion, reducing dietary CP level by 1 percentage unit and supplementing only LYS at each phase could be a very beneficial feeding strategy for finishing pigs fed under a three phase feeding regimen in terms of both environmental and economical aspects.