Amino acid supplementation of meat meal in lysine-fortified, corn-based diets for growing-finishing pigs

The experiments involving 320 Yorkshire X Hampshire pigs were conducted to assess the effects of L-tryptophan additions to meat meal-supplemented, corn-based diets on rate and efficiency of growth of growing-finishing pigs. The meat meal used in Exp. 1 and 2 was a blend from two sources and that used in Exp. 3 was from a single source. A fortified corn-soybean meal basal diet (13.3% CP during the growing stage; 11.7 or 12.0 % CP during the finishing stage), supplemented with .15 to .20% lysine (as L-lysine-HCl), was fed in each experiment. This diet was formulated to be adequate in dietary lysine (.75 to .80% during the growing stage; .65 to .71% during the finishing stage). Meat meal was added at 5 to 10% and was substituted for corn and soybean meal on a lysine basis. Diets containing meat meal were then supplemented with various levels (0 to .05%) of L-tryptophan. Levels of Ca and P were approximately the same across treatments, with levels based on the amounts provided by the highest level of meat meal in the diets. The pigs initially averaged 24, 29, and 45 kg of BW in the three experiments, and they were on test until they reached market weight (93 to 101 kg of BW). Pigs were switched from the growing to the finishing diet at 57 and 61 kg in Exp. 1 and 2, respectively. Feed intake, growth rate, and efficiency of feed utilization were reduced when meat meal was included in the diet, particularly at the higher dietary inclusion (10%). The addition of .015% tryptophan to a diet containing 5% meat meal and .03% tryptophan to a diet containing 10% meat meal prevented the reduction in performance. Further addition of isoleucine or a combination of isoleucine and threonine did not further enhance pig performance. Based on these results, each 10 kg of meat meal added to a corn-based diet required 30 g of supplemental L-tryptophan to optimize performance of growing-finishing pigs.