Feeding a lower-protein, aniino-acid supplemented diet has no effect on growth performance but reduces post-weaning diarrhoea in pigs

摘要

Diets for piglets are usually formulated to contain 20% to 23% crude protein (CP) (NRC, 1998). However, average small intestinal digestibility of CP in healthy piglets is between 60-80%, and this figure can be even lower in unhealthy piglets (Hogbergand Lindberg, 2004). Increased protein entering the large intestine has been associated with a higher incidence of post-weaning diarrhoea (PWD) (Aumaitre et al, 1995), and one strategy to reduce the incidence of PWD is feeding a diet with a lower proteincontent. However, a potential problem when feeding a lower protein diet to weaner pigs is a reduction in growth (Nyachoti et al., 2006), either because the diets are fed for too long after weaning and (or) the low CP diets are not balanced for essential amino acids (AA). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of feeding a diet low in protein (18%), but supplemented with essential AA, for different periods of time after weaning on growth performance and PWD.