Digestible tryptophan requirements of starting, growing, and finishing pigs

Seven hundred eight crossbred pigs were used in growth and digestion trials to determine the digestible tryptophan (Trp) requirement of starting (6 to 16 kg), growing (22 to 50 kg), and finishing (55 to 97 kg) pigs. Each growth trial evaluated a corn-fish meal-corn gluten meal basal diet, the basal diet with five incremental additions of L-Trp, and a control corn-soybean meal diet. The tryptophan content of the six incremental diets ranged from .13 to .255% for starting pigs, .08 to .18% for growing pigs, and .063 to .163% for finishing pigs. Lysine contents of basal diets were 1.38, .90, and .72% for starting, growing, and finishing diets, respectively. In all trials, ADG, ADFI, and gain/feed increased (P less than .001) linearly and quadratically as dietary Trp increased. Broken-line regression analyses determined the total dietary Trp requirements needed to optimize performance to be .19, .13, and .09% (as-fed basis) for starting, growing, and finishing pigs, respectively. These concentrations equated to Trp intakes of .96, 2.18, and 2.88 g/d. A digestion trial using growing pigs (29 kg initially) determined the apparent ileal digestibility of Trp in the basal starting and growing diets to be 72 and 70%, respectively; a similar trial with finishing pigs (55 kg initially) found 59% Trp digestibility for the basal finishing diet. Mean digestibility of L-Trp was 97%. Based on these values and the total Trp requirements given above, the digestible Trp requirements are .15, .10, and .06% for starting, growing, and finishing pigs, respectively.