Lysine availability in flash-dried blood meals for swine

The available lysine content of three flash-dried blood meals was determined by use of a pig growth assay. Pigs that were 5 to 6 wk old were fed either one of the reference diets or one of the test diets for the 4-wk period of each assay. The reference diets were a corn-soybean meal basal (B) that was deficient in lysine, B+.1% L-lysine and B+.2% L-lysine. The test diets were B plus 1.5% and 3.0% of blood meal. The available lysine levels (percentage as fed) of ring-dried cattle blood meal, ring-dried swine blood meal and drum-dried cattle blood meal were determined to be 6.9, 7.4 and 6.7, respectively. All three flash-dried blood meals appeared to have similar available lysine levels and a value of 7% lysine may be used to formulate diets containing flash-dried blood meals. Incorporation of 3 or 6% drum-dried blood meal into starter diets improved N retention over a corn-soybean meal diet and did not reduce N-corrected metabolizable energy density of the diet.