The effect of dietary energy content on the voluntary intake of pigs

1967 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Owen ◽  
W. J. Ridgman

1. An experiment to investigate the effect of dietary energy concentration on the voluntary intake and growth of pigs from 27·2 to 118·0 kg. (60 to 260 lb.) live-weight is described and the results discussed.2. From 27·2 to 50·0 kg. live-weight energy intake was substantially restricted and growth retarded by diets of low energy concentration but from 50·0 to 118·0 kg. there was little difference between diets in either energy intake or growth because daily food intake of the low energy diets was increased.3. Effects of diet on carcass quality as measured by full dissection were small except that killing-out percentage was lower on one of the low energy diets.4. It is concluded that limited differences in the energy concentration and palatability of ingredients are unimportant in formulating pelleted diets for self-fed pigs.

2005 ◽  
Vol 143 (5) ◽  
pp. 427-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. AHMED ◽  
S. HALDAR ◽  
M. C. PAKHIRA ◽  
T. K. GHOSH

Diets for broiler chickens (n=90) were supplemented with chromium (CrCl3, 6H2O), either alone (0·2 mg/kg diet) or in a combination with ascorbic acid (0·2 mg Cr and 50 mg ascorbic acid/kg diet). The objectives of the study were to ascertain if ascorbic acid had any additive effect on the actions of chromium and whether chromium supplementation could alleviate the nutritional stress in the birds imposed by a reduced energy intake. The birds were fed at the recommended (Bureau of Indian Standards 1992) and at a lower plane of energy. Live-weight gain and diet utilization were higher (P<0·01) when the normal energy diet supplemented with chromium was fed. Food intake (35 days) was higher (P<0·001) in the birds fed with the low energy diet. There was an increase (P<0·01) in metabolizability due to the supplementation of chromium. The metabolizability of crude protein and total carbohydrate increased (P<0·05) when chromium and ascorbic acid were supplemented together. Chromium intake was higher (P<0·001) in the supplemented birds, especially in those fed with the low energy diet (P<0·05), though its retention was higher (P<0·05) when the normal energy diet was given. Chromium in combination with ascorbic acid also enhanced (P<0·01) chromium retention. Blood glucose (P<0·001) and plasma cholesterol (P<0·05) were lower in the supplemented birds and blood glucose was reduced further when ascorbic acid was supplemented together with chromium (P<0·01). Plasma protein increased (P<0·05) in the supplemented chickens. However, variation in the dietary energy concentration did not exert any significant effect on these blood parameters. Plasma chromium was higher (P<0·05) in the supplemented birds, though chromium had little effect in this regard with ascorbic acid. Plasma copper increased (P<0·05) when chromium was supplemented alone and increased further (P<0·05) when chromium and ascorbic acid were supplemented together. Deposition of chromium in the breast and thighs increased (P<0·05) due to supplementation. Protein content and total accretion of protein in the carcass were higher (P<0·05) when chromium was supplemented alone and with ascorbic acid. The supplemented birds had less (P<0·01) fat per 100 g of carcass irrespective of the dietary energy concentration. Weight of the hot carcass increased (P<0·05) due to chromium supplementation although dietary energy concentration did not affect this particular parameter. It was concluded that inorganic chromium supplementation (0·2 mg chromium/kg diet) might effectively enhance the growth performance, diet utilization and carcass characteristics in broiler chickens. Addition of ascorbic acid might also be beneficial in this regard. However, dietary energy concentration was more critical and to yield the maximum benefit of Cr supplementation in broiler chickens, an optimum level was essential.


1970 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kay ◽  
N. A. MacLeod ◽  
Margaret McLaren

SUMMARY1. A growth and digestibility trial was carried out with 27 British Friesian calves given diets having either 3·1, 2·8 or 2·4 Meal metabolizable energy per kg dry matter and either the same concentration of protein or the same protein-to-energy ratio.2. Daily dry-matter intake and rate of gain in live weight increased significantly as the energy concentration of the diet was reduced. There were no significant differences in digestible-energy intake between calves given the different diets, although the trend was the same as for dry-matter intake.3. Both dry-matter digestibility and energy digestibility were lowest for the low-energy diet.


1984 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Ebersohn ◽  
K. W. Moir

SummaryLive-weight gain of beef cattle grazing all-grass or grass-clover pastures, details of which have been reported previously, was significantly (P < 0·01) correlated with pasture growth rate, but not with pasture dry matter on offer (either total or green), or with dietary-energy concentration. From ideas generated from the relationship between live-weight gain and pasture growth rate, and using intake values measured from the number and size of prehension bites, it is shown how high live-weight gain for measured dietary-energy concentration could be explained by differential contribution to digestibility and voluntary intake from pasture new growth.


1969 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. P. Andrews ◽  
M. Kay ◽  
E. R. Ørskov

SUMMARYIn a comparative slaughter trial which covered growth from about 16 kg to 40 kg live weight, five groups of six Romney × Swaledale lambs were offeredad libitumfive pelleted diets (A to E) in which rolled barley was gradually replaced by an 80 : 20 mixture of rolled oats : oat husks to the extent that the calculated metabolizable energy (ME) concentration fell from approximately 2–9 (A) to 2·5 (E) Mcal/kg DM.Although daily live-weight gains did not differ significantly between treatments, the daily carcass gain fell from 143 g/day on A to 105 g/day on E (P<0·05) whereas gut contents increased from 9·9% of live weight to 16·1% (P< 0·001) from A to E. Differences in efficiency of utilization of ME above maintenance were variable but for gross efficiency (i.e. retention/total ME intake), there was a significant decline from A to E.Dry-matter intakes for the whole experimental period were similar for all five diets, but initially intake was lower for diet E than for A (780v.927 g/day) and ultimately it was higher for E (1410v.1150 g/day). In a second experiment, involving diets A and E and a third diet of chopped dried grass, the pattern of intake and growth changed with live weight in a similar manner to that described above, except that appetite and growth on dried grass were consistently poorer. Daily variation in intake and rumen pH tended to be greater on the concentrate diets.It is suggested that, amongst other factors, the stage of maturity of an animal may influence the point at which the digestible energy content of the diet restricts dietary intake in preference to physical limitations.


1968 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Owen ◽  
W. J. Ridgman

1. Twenty-seven Large White pigs from three litters were involved in a 33 factorial experiment in which they were given three pelleted diets containing 0, 10% and 20% of dry sawdust during each third of an experimental period ranging from 29·5 to 118 kg live weight. The effects of these treatments on dry-matter intake and rate of growth in each sub-period and on the final carcass quality of the pig were studied.2. The results confirmed a previous finding that pigs developed a compensatory increase in intake in response to diets containing increasing amounts of sawdust, but that in small pigs this operates very poorly and leads to much retarded growth on the high sawdust diets.3. The compensatory intake mechanism took some time to develop after the pig had been put on to the sawdust diets, the delay being much longer in the smaller pig. Similarly, when the pigs were returned to high energy diets some time elapsed before intake returned to normal. During this time lag the pigs grew faster, as with compensatory growth, than when they had not previously been subjected to low energy diets.4. It is concluded that long-term observations must be made in order to investigate the nutrition of pigs fed ad libitum.5. Although energy intake can be restricted by giving low energy diets for a short period, this does not seem to improve carcass quality.


1986 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Zhang ◽  
I. G. Partridge ◽  
K. G. Mitchell

ABSTRACTFour diets were formulated from cereals, animal and vegetable protein supplements and tallow, to contain digestible energy (DE) concentrations of 14·1 or 17·1 MJ/kg and crude protein concentrations of 12·7 or 17·0 g/MJ DE in a 2 X 2 factorial design. In each of two experiments, pigs were weaned and allocated to dietary treatments when 21 days old and were fed twice daily to appetite. In experiment 1, six replicates of four male littermates were used. They were individually fed in metabolism cages and continuous energy and nitrogen (N) balances were made from 28 to 63 days of age. In experiment 2, three male and three female pigs were slaughtered at weaning to determine initial body composition, and three replicates of four littermates of each sex were allocated to the dietary treatments. The latter were fed in treatment groups in flat-deck pens and slaughtered at 63 days of age.In experiment 1, increased energy concentration reduced food intake only slightly and improved liveweight gain and food: gain ratio; higher protein concentration increased gains only at lower energy concentration. Daily N balance improved with increased energy and protein concentration but the response to protein was greater with the low energy diet. Dietary energy was efficiently utilized even with 163 g tallow per kg diet. From 63 days of age until slaughter at 60 kg all pigs were given the same grower diet to appetite. Performance was not affected by previous treatments.In experiment 2, food intakes were higher than in experiment 1 and tended to be reduced to a greater extent with the higher energy concentration; live-weight gains were similar for all treatments and food: gain ratio tended to improve in response to higher energy and protein concentrations. Dietary energy level had no effect on carcass fat content but the higher protein level reduced fat deposition. N retention tended to be lower for the low energy, low protein diet compared with the other three diets. Dietary effects on the amino-acid composition of the carcass were small. Carcass amino-acid ratios at 3 and 9 weeks were similar to published values and there was a tendency for higher amino-acid concentrations (g/16 g N) at 9 weeks than at 3 weeks.


1986 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. G. Campbell ◽  
M. R. Taverner

ABSTRACTNinety entire male pigs were used in two experiments to investigate the effects of energy concentration on the performance of growing pigs given diets containing relatively high or low levels of fibre. A blended fat product was also compared with tallow as a source of dietary energy for pigs in the first experiment.In experiment 1, 60 pigs growing between 20 and 45 kg live weight were given 10 diets containing approximately 120 g acid-detergent fibre per kg (80 g crude fibre per kg), and 10, 30, 50, 75 or 100 g/kg of either tallow or the blended fat product.Although the source of fat had no significant effect on food intake or growth performance, voluntary energy intake and growth rate increased with increase in the level of fat added to the diet and with concomitant increase in dietary digestible energy (DE) concentration up to 50 g/kg and 13·2 MJ/kg respectively. Further increase in the level of fat added to the diet and in DE concentration resulted in a decline in voluntary food intake, whilst energy intake and growth rate remained relatively constant at 27 MJ/day and 720 g/day respectively.In experiment 2, 30 pigs were used to investigate the animals' response to five levels of dietary DE concentration (11·8 to 15·1 MJ DE per kg) between 20 and 50 kg live weight. The highest level of acid-detergent fibre in the diets was 62 g/kg (50 g crude fibre per kg) and this declined with increase in energy concentration to 30 g/kg (25 g crude fibre per kg) in the diet of highest energy concentration.Voluntary food intake was not significantly affected by dietary energy concentration, and voluntary energy intake and growth rate increased linearly with increase in dietary energy concentration up to 14·5 MJ DE per kg. Maximum energy intake (31 MJ DE per day) and growth rate (905 g/day) in experiment 2 was proportionately 0·15 and 0·26 higher than that achieved by pigs given the higher fibre diets in experiment 1.The results for voluntary food intake and growth rate suggested that the pig's demand for energy and consequently its response to dietary energy concentration was affected by dietary fibre concentration.


1982 ◽  
Vol 99 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. W. Moir ◽  
J. P. Ebersohn ◽  
J. Evans

SUMMARYGrowing beef cattle grazed six pasture types (all-grass or grass-legume mixtures) for 4 months on each. Live weight (mean of ten animals) and dietary energy concentration were measured at 2- or 3-weekly intervals. Values for feed intake estimated by back-calculating from feeding standards were on average 2·5% higher (range, 10% less to 12 % higher) than intake values estimated directly from dietary energy concentration and live weight. In contrast to this level of agreement of means, differences between methods within pastures were so large as to suggest the presence of overriding effects on predictors of voluntary intake. It was concluded that until these overriding effects are explained, there are no means of validating measured intakes in grazing cattle, or of accurately predicting the amount of beef produced from pasture.


1981 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-86
Author(s):  
C. N. Skipitaris

SUMMARYAn experiment was made with growing pigs, to investigate the effect of water restriction in combination with self-fed diets of reduced energy content upon carcass quality.The diets compared contained 5 and 30% of lucerne hay and the water treatments were ad libitum or progressively restricted amounts during the finishing period (60–90 kg live weight).Both increasing the proportion of lucerne meal and restricting water intake reduced significantly depth of backfat and the weight of total subcutaneous fat. There was no interaction between the treatments.The results are discussed in the light of the findings of Cunningham & Friend (1966).


2001 ◽  
Vol 204 (11) ◽  
pp. 1947-1956 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. S. Johnson ◽  
S. C. Thomson ◽  
J. R. Speakman

SUMMARYTo determine whether mice were limited in their capacity to absorb energy during late lactation, we attempted to increase the energy burden experienced by a group of female mice during late lactation by mating them at the postpartum oestrus, hence combining the energy demands of pregnancy and lactation. These experimental mice were therefore concurrently pregnant and lactating in their first lactation, and were followed through a normal second lactation. In a control group, females also underwent two lactations but sequentially, with the second mating after the first litter had been weaned. Maternal mass and food intake were measured throughout the first lactation, second pregnancy and second lactation. Maternal resting metabolic rate (RMR) was measured prior to the first mating and then at the peak of both the first and second lactations. Litter size and litter mass were also measured throughout both lactations. In the first lactation, experimental mice had a lower mass-independent RMR (F1,88=5.15, P=0.026) and raised significantly heavier pups (t=2.77, d.f.=32, P=0.0093) than the control mice. Experimental mice delayed implantation at the start of the second pregnancy. The extent of the delay was positively related to litter size during the first lactation (F1,19=4.58, P=0.046) and negatively related to mean pup mass (F1,19=5.78, P=0.027) in the first lactation. In the second lactation, the experimental mice gave birth to more (t=2.75, d.f.=38, P=0.0092) and lighter (t=−5.01, d.f.=38, P&lt;0.0001) pups than did the controls in their second lactation. Maternal asymptotic daily food intake of control mice in the second lactation was significantly higher (t=−4.39, d.f.=37, P=0.0001) than that of the experimental mice and higher than that of controls during their first lactation. Despite the added burden on the experimental females during their first lactation, there was no increase in their food intake, which suggested that they might be limited by their capacity to absorb energy. However, control females appeared to be capable of increasing their asymptotic food intake beyond the supposed limits estimated previously, suggesting that the previously established limit was not a fixed central limitation on food intake. As RMR increased in parallel with the increase in food intake during the second lactation of control mice, the sustained energy intake remained at around 7.0×RMR.


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