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Utilization of D-Tryptophan by Swine¹

Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station³

Abstract

The degree of utilization of D-tryptophan by swine was studied using baby pigs fed rations deficient in tryptophan and supplemented with either the L- or DL-form of this amino acid. Growth and nitrogen retention were the principal criteria employed to estimate the efficiency of use of the unnatural isomer. Pigs maintained on a ration deficient in tryptophan lost weight, but at most showed only a slight negative nitrogen balance. When this ration was supplemented with 0.05 percent L- or 0.1 percent DL-tryptophan, the animals consumed the ration more readily, growth improved and definitive positive nitrogen retention was found. Averages favored the animals receiving DL-tryptophan, but differences were not sufficiently great to show statistical significance. These combined data support the view that partial utilization of D-tryptophan was effected.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director, Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station. A contribution from the Departments of Animal Husbandry and Agricultural Chemistry Research. Supported in part by a grant from Merck and Company, Rahway, New Jersey.

² Present address, Research Laboratory, Swift and Company, Chicago, Illinois.

³ The following acknowledgments are made: Merck and Company, Rahway, N. J. for B-complex vitamins; Distillation Products Industries, Rochester, N. Y. for tocopherol acetate; Lederle Laboratories Division. American Cyanamid Co., Pearl River, N. Y. for folic acid; I. E. duPont de Nemours and Co., New Brunswick, N. J. for DL-lysine; U. S. Industrial Chemicals Co., New York, N. Y. for DL-methionine, and Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Michigan, for DL-tryptophan.