April 7, 2011 

 

 

Canadian researchers reviewed the amino acid requirements of modern sows, according to the latest edition of Pork News & Views of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture.

 

In the last few years, researchers at the University of Alberta's Swine Research and Technology Centre have been analysing the amino acid needs of gestating sows.

 

Their research has yielded evidence that although great steps have been made in swine genetics over the last few years, the suggestions for daily amino acid intake during gestation need to be revised.

 

At the moment, the NRC (1998) recommendations for nutrient and energy intake during gestation are constant. This is based on the assumption of an equal distribution of nutrient need during gestation.

 

However, as sows go through gestation, it changes from recovering body condition in early gestation to building fetal and mammary tissues in late gestation. Additionally, practical experience on farm has shown that feed intake must be raised during late gestation to support performance and sow longevity.

 

Disregarding these physiological changes and giving a single gestation ration leads to overfeeding in early gestation and underfeeding in late gestation.

 

Based on their findings, the researchers have suggested changes to the amino acids needs during gestation.

 

These changes will affect how gestating sows are being fed in several ways; it will be challenging to satisfy the sows' nutrient needs during gestation without phase feeding or use of a top-dress.

 

The proportion of amino acids, threonine to lysine in particular, changes not only through gestation but as the sow grows older. This means a different diet might be needed for older parity sows.

 

Lysine might not be the first limiting amino acid for older sows. Instead threonine may be first limiting, followed by tryptophan and lysine and branched chain amino acids third. This would substantially change the diet formulation for older sows.

 

This research, while promising to substantially change the way gestating sows to be fed, has yet to be utilised on a commercial scale in a long term controlled feeding test. These trials are expected to begin soon.