ABSTRACT
Two experiments were conducted to determine the standardized ileal digestible (SID) lysine (Lys) requirement and the ideal SID sulphur amino acids (SAA) to Lys ratio for 30-50 kg crossbred pigs. In experiment 1, a total of 72 crossbred pigs with an average initial body weight (BW) of 28.9 kg were allotted to one of six dietary treatments in a randomized complete block design. Each diet was assigned to six pens containing two pigs each. Six diets were obtained by supplementing graded levels of L-LysineâHCl to create six dietary levels of SID Lys (0.70%, 0.80%, 0.90%, 1.00%, 1.10% and 1.20%). Responses of weight gain (ADG) and gain:feed (G:F) to increasing the SID Lys content of the diet fitted well with the curvilinear-plateau model; whereas, for plasma urea nitrogen (PUN) two-slope linear broken-line model was well fitted. The optimal SID Lys requirement for the pigs of this period was 1.10%. Experiment 2 was a dose-response study using SID Met+Cys to Lys ratios of 50%, 55%, 60%, 65%, 70% and 64%. A total of 72 crossbred pigs with initial BW of 32.9 kg were randomly allotted to receive one of the six diets. Diets 1-5 were formulated to contain 1.0% SID Lys to be second limiting in Lys and diet 6 contained 1.11% SID Lys to be adequate in Lys. The average optimal SID SAA:Lys ratio for maximal ADG and G:F and minimal PUN was 65.2% using curvilinear-plateau and linear broken-line models.
