Journal of Animal Science, Vol 76, Issue 2 513-521, Copyright © 1998 by American Society of Animal Science

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Essential and nonessential amino acid composition of pigs from birth to 145 kilograms of body weight, and comparison to other studies

D. C. Mahan and R. G. Shields Jr
Animal Sciences Department, The Ohio State University, and The Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Columbus 43210-1095, USA.

The amino acid composition of the body components (carcass, hair, whole blood, and a composite of the other body tissues) were determined from a total of 81 crossbred pigs at 10 weight intervals from birth to 145 kg body weight. Body component amino acid compositions (g/100 g protein) were multiplied by their respective protein contents, resulting in calculated whole-body amino acid compositions. From 8.5 to 145 kg body weight, the amino acid compositions were similar within each body component but differed between body components. There was a higher concentration of carcass lysine, arginine, and histidine (P < .01) in the carcass, and isoleucine (P < .12), threonine (P < .15), and methionine (P < .08) tended to be higher than in the composite of the other body tissue. Whole blood was, however, higher in leucine, valine, and lysine, and hair was higher in cystine than the carcass. The relative concentration of lysine in the whole body increased to about 37 kg body weight and reached a plateau, whereas the other essential amino acids increased to 8.5 kg and then reached a plateau. Tryptophan, however, decreased from birth to 8.5 kg and then remained at a similar concentration to 145 kg body weight. Whole-body amino acid composition of pigs in our study was generally similar to that noted in other scientific reports, but there was a wide variation in amino acid values between studies.

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