Applications of a multiphasic growth function to body composition in pigs

Area of Science:

• Animal Science
• Quantitative Biology
• Biomathematics

Background:

• Understanding animal growth is crucial for optimizing livestock production and management.
• Traditional growth models often simplify complex biological processes, limiting their predictive accuracy for specific body components.
• Pigs exhibit distinct growth phases for different body tissues, necessitating models that can capture this complexity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and apply a multiphasic growth function to model pig growth.
• To relate the growth of body components to distinct phases of overall growth.
• To assess the utility of this function for predicting body composition and carcass weights.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a multiphasic growth function to describe pig growth.
• Characterized each growth phase by asymptotic weight, age at maximum gain, and duration.
• Applied diphasic and monophasic functions to predict total dry matter (DM) weight and carcass side weight.
• Grouped components based on age at maximum gain.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated good agreement for asymptotic weight between body components and growth phases.
• Observed general agreement for age at maximum gain and duration, with exceptions for carcass weights.
• Showed that a multiphasic function can predict total DM and carcass side weights effectively.
• Identified fat growth as a late phase in the multiphasic growth description.

Conclusions:

• A multiphasic growth function provides a robust framework for analyzing pig growth dynamics.
• The model accurately predicts body and carcass component weights, offering insights into growth partitioning.
• This approach holds potential for estimating fat-adjusted weight in live animals, enhancing precision livestock farming.