Dietary Supplementation of L-Arginine HC1 Increases Lactating Sow Feed Efficiency and Promotes Male Piglet Growth

摘要

Milk is the major source of nutrition for pre-weaned piglets, with changes in milk production and composition being primary determinants of piglet survival and weight at weaning. Sow milk only provides approximately 40% of the nutrients required for maximal piglet growth during lactation (Boyd et al., 1995), with arginine in particular identified as limiting piglet growth (Wu et al., 2004). Increasing the supply of arginine to piglets through maternal dietary supplementation of lactating gilts increases the growth of their piglets, as does supplementing piglets directly (Mateo et al., 1998; Kim et al., 2004). The effects of supplementing arginine in the lactation diet of multiparous sows on piglet growth, and the mechanisms for this, have not been reported. This experiment was conducted to determine whether supplementing the lactation diets of multiparous sows with arginine would improve piglet growth rate due to increased arginine concentrations in the milk and/or milk production.