scholarly journals Effect of Immunocastration and Diet on Growth Performance, Serum Metabolites and Sex Hormones, Reproductive Organ Development and Carcass Quality of Heavy Gilts

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1900
Author(s):  
Leticia Pérez-Ciria ◽  
Francisco Javier Miana-Mena ◽  
María Victoria Falceto ◽  
Olga Mitjana ◽  
Maria Angeles Latorre

It is desirable to increase fatness in gilts destined for Teruel dry-cured ham production. A total of 192 Duroc × (Landrace × Large White) gilts of 40.3 ± 4.80 kg body weight (BW) were used to assess the impact of immunocastration and feeding on growth performance, serum metabolites and sex hormones, reproductive organ development, and carcass quality. Six treatments were arranged factorially (2 × 3) with two types of gilt (entire gilts (EG) vs. immunocastrated gilts (IG)) and three experimental diets (control vs. high energy vs. low crude protein and amino acids) provided from 76 to 134 kg BW (n = 4 per treatment, being the replicate the pen with eight pigs). Immunocastration was carried out at 58 and 77 kg BW. The IG grew faster and showed lighter reproductive tracts and greater fatness than EG. The experimental feeds had limited effect on carcass quality, but the high-energy diet improved gain-to-feed ratio and the low-protein and -amino-acids diet did not impair growth performance. In conclusion, immunocastration was a better strategy than the tested diets to increase the fatness of gilts intended for Teruel dry-cured ham, although increasing energy or decreasing crude protein and amino acid levels in the diet could be beneficial strategies for pig farmers.

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3355
Author(s):  
Leticia Pérez-Ciria ◽  
Francisco Javier Miana-Mena ◽  
María Carmen López-Mendoza ◽  
Javier Álvarez-Rodríguez ◽  
Maria Angeles Latorre

Two experiments were carried out; one with female pigs and the other with male pigs destined for Teruel dry-cured ham production, to evaluate the effect of immunocastration (entire gilts-EG vs. immunocastrated gilts-IG and surgically castrated males vs. immunocastrated males-IM) and diet (control vs. high energy vs. low crude protein and amino acids) on meat quality and fat composition. Fifteen meat samples and eight fat samples of each treatment were analyzed in both experiments. In the case of males, six fat samples per treatment were analyzed to determine boar taint. Immunocastration is a good strategy in gilts intended for dry-cured ham production because improves meat composition; however, in males, immunocastration impairs the results of pork chemical composition compared with surgical castration. The IG presented a lower polyunsaturated/saturated fatty acids ratio than EG, improving fat technological quality. Diets had little effect on pork or fat quality in gilts, but a high-energy level using oilseeds and a low-crude-protein and -amino-acids diet from 80 to 137 kg of body weight could be interesting in IM to maintain or increase fat consistency, respectively. Moreover, in general, immunocastration is effective in avoiding boar taint in males.


Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Zhu ◽  
Wei Xu ◽  
Congcong Wei ◽  
Zijun Zhang ◽  
Chunchao Jiang ◽  
...  

The effects of decreasing dietary crude protein (CP) level on growth performance, nutrient digestion, serum metabolites, and nitrogen utilization in growing goat kids were investigated in the current study. Thirty-six male Anhui white goat kids were randomly assigned to one of three CP content diets: 14.8% (control), 13.4%, and 12.0% of dry matter, respectively. Diets were isoenergetic. The experiment lasted for 14 weeks, with the first two weeks being for adaptation. Results showed that the low-CP diet decreased average daily gain, feed efficiency, digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, and fiber. No significant changes were observed in dry-matter intake. With a decrease in dietary CP level, fecal nitrogen excretion (% of nitrogen intake) increased linearly, whereas CP intake, blood urea nitrogen, urinary nitrogen excretion (% of nitrogen intake), and total nitrogen excretion (% of nitrogen intake) decreased. Serum glucose concentration decreased, while concentrations of low-density lipoproteins and non-esterified fatty acids increased with the low-CP diet. In conclusion, decreasing the dietary CP level decreased goats’ nitrogen excretion, but with restrictive effects on growth performance. A diet containing 13.4% CP is optimal for reducing nitrogen excretion without any adverse effect on growth performance of Anhui white goat kids. This concentration is 1.4% points lower than the NRC recommendations and thus is also environmentally beneficial on the input side because it decreases the use of feed (soy) protein.


2015 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 50-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Gallo ◽  
G. Dalla Montà ◽  
L. Carraro ◽  
A. Cecchinato ◽  
P. Carnier ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 130-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Gallo ◽  
G. Dalla Montà ◽  
L. Carraro ◽  
A. Cecchinato ◽  
P. Carnier ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (10) ◽  
pp. 1599-1609
Author(s):  
Youn Hee Lee ◽  
Farhad Ahmadi ◽  
Myun Lee ◽  
Young-Kyoon Oh ◽  
Wan Sup Kwak

Objective: This study was designed to determine how feeding diets differing in crude protein (CP) and undegraded intake protein (UIP) levels affected productivity, blood metabolites, carcass characteristics, and the production economics of Hanwoo steers.Methods: Thirty-six Hanwoo steers (age = 8.2±0.5 mo; body weight = 254±16.1 kg) were assigned at random to one of three treatments (4 steers/pen; 3 pens/treatment): i) a low-CP diet (LP; control) containing 12.1% CP with 35.1% UIP, 12.0% CP with 36.8% UIP, and 12.9% CP with 48.8% UIP, in the growing, fattening, and finishing periods, respectively; ii) a high-CP, low-UIP diet (HPLU) containing 15.0% CP with 33.7% UIP, 14.0% CP with 35.7% UIP, and 13.1% CP with 46.7% UIP, respectively; and iii) a high-CP, high-UIP diet (HPHU) containing 15.0% CP with 45.8% UIP, 14.0% CP with 44.6% UIP, and 13.0% CP with 51.1% UIP, respectively.Results: The treatments did not affect feed intake and growth performance, except for average daily gain during the fattening period that tended to be the lowest (p = 0.08) in the HPLUfed steers. The feed CP conversion ratio over the entire feeding period was higher with high-CP diets. The treatments did not affect most blood metabolites; however, blood cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein concentrations during the fattening and finishing periods were the lowest in steers fed a HPLU diet. The treatments had negligible effects on cold carcass weight, yield traits including longissimus muscle area, backfat thickness, yield index, and yield grade, plus quality traits including meat color, fat color, texture, and maturity. However, marbling score and frequency of carcass quality grade 1++ were greater in HPHU-fed steers.Conclusion: Feeding diets with higher CP and UIP levels did not affect growth performance but tended to improve the carcass quality of Hanwoo steers, resulting in greater economic return.


Microbiome ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Congying Chen ◽  
Shaoming Fang ◽  
Hong Wei ◽  
Maozhang He ◽  
Hao Fu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Excessive fat accumulation of pigs is undesirable, as it severely affects economic returns in the modern pig industry. Studies in humans and mice have examined the role of the gut microbiome in host energy metabolism. Commercial Duroc pigs are often fed formula diets with high energy and protein contents. Whether and how the gut microbiome under this type of diet regulates swine fat accumulation is largely unknown. Results In the present study, we systematically investigated the correlation of gut microbiome with pig lean meat percentage (LMP) in 698 commercial Duroc pigs and found that Prevotella copri was significantly associated with fat accumulation of pigs. Fat pigs had significantly higher abundance of P. copri in the gut. High abundance of P. copri was correlated with increased concentrations of serum metabolites associated with obesity, e.g., lipopolysaccharides, branched chain amino acids, aromatic amino acids, and the metabolites of arachidonic acid. Host intestinal barrier permeability and chronic inflammation response were increased. A gavage experiment using germ-free mice confirmed that the P. copri isolated from experimental pigs was a causal species increasing host fat accumulation and altering serum metabolites. Colon, adipose tissue, and muscle transcriptomes in P. copri-gavaged mice indicated that P. copri colonization activated host chronic inflammatory responses through the TLR4 and mTOR signaling pathways and significantly upregulated the expression of the genes related to lipogenesis and fat accumulation, but attenuated the genes associated with lipolysis, lipid transport, and muscle growth. Conclusions Taken together, the results proposed that P. copri in the gut microbial communities of pigs fed with commercial formula diets activates host chronic inflammatory responses by the metabolites through the TLR4 and mTOR signaling pathways, and increases host fat deposition significantly. The results provide fundamental knowledge for reducing fat accumulation in pigs through regulating the gut microbial composition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 97 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. 351-352
Author(s):  
S-M Hong ◽  
D Jung ◽  
S-J You

Abstract A body of evidence suggests that low-protein diets in swine have benefits in view of environmental stewardship and economic returns. The present study was performed to evaluate essential amino acid (EAA) supplementation in the diets with reducing crude protein (CP) concentrations on growth performance in fattening pigs. We hypothesized that a low-CP diet with elevated EAA concentrations would result in similar growth performance in fattening pigs compared with a normal CP diet. Eighty finishing pigs with initial body weight (BW) of 72.0 ± 5.34 kg were assigned in a randomized complete block design with 5 replicates to test 4 dietary treatments: 1) 15.5% CP with EAA concentration at 109% of NRC requirement (control); 2) 14.0% CP with EAA concentration at 111% of NRC requirement (EAA111); 3) 14.0% CP with EAA concentration at 113% of NRC requirement (EAA113); and 14.0% CP with EAA concentration at 115% of NRC requirement (EAA115). The diets were isocaloric, whereas crystalline amino acids, L-Lys, L-Met, L-Thr, L-Trp, and L-Val were added to the diets to achieve the varying levels of EAA in the treatments. The Lys-to-net energy ratio in the diets was maintained at 3.06, 3.12, 3.18, and 3.24 to the control, EAA111, EAA113, and EAA115, respectively. Dietary treatments did not affect final BW. Additionally, average daily gain, average daily feed intake, and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were similar across the treatments. On average, pigs fed the control and EAA111 numerically decreased FCR compared to those fed EAA113 and 115 (3.21 vs. 3.35, respectively; P = 0.46). Total feed cost throughout the experiment was $9.0/head lessen in EAA111 relative to the control; however, total feed costs to EAA113 and EAA115 were greater than the control. In summary, a low-CP diet with increased EAA supplementations did not have any negative impact on growth performance of fattening pigs.


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