Insulin Secretion and Pig Performance are Altered by Feeding Pattern

摘要

Previous studies have suggested that feeding pigs ad libitum may be metabolically inefficient as insulin secretion remains unresponsive to this feeding strategy, whereas, when pigs are fed bi-phasically, consisting of two one hourly intervals of feeding, insulin secretion occurs in a distinct spike that follows each feeding period (Scrimgeour, 2008). A more recent small study has shown an 8% improvement in feed efficiency in pigs fed bi-phasically when compared to feeding ad libitum (Newman et al. 2008). The current experiment sought to confirm the results of the previous experiments using a larger cohort of animals to test the hypothesis that feeding pigs at two succinct intervals aligns insulin secretion more closely to the time of feeding resulting in improved productivity.