Sensitivity to dietary lysine: energy content in pigs divergently selected for components of efficient lean growth rate


Animal Science (accepted)

The sensitivity to dietary lysine: energy content of pigs from lines divergently selected over seven generations for components of efficient lean growth rate was quantified by the within-selection line regression of performance test traits on diet class. Large White pigs were performance tested over three 14-day test-periods starting at 30, 50 and 75 kg and fed to appetite isoenergetic diets differing in dietary total lysine: energy (0.59, 0.69, 0.81, 0.91, 1.01, 1.12 and 1.23 g/MJ DE). Within each litter, full-sibs were performance tested on different diets. Pigs were also performance tested on a diet-choice procedure using diets with total lysine: energy of 0.69 and 1.1.2 g/MJ DE to determine the correlation between performance on phase-feeding and diet choice. The study consisted of 578 animals with 459 pigs tested with phase-feeding and 119 tested on diet-choice procedures.

The study detected significant selection line and dietary effects on performance test traits, but no significant between-selection line differences in sensitivity to dietary total lysine: energy. When combinations of performance test traits were transformed into predicted lysine and energy utilisation traits there were significant selection line effects on predicted nutrient allocation, but not in responses to increasing dietary total lysine: energy. The lack of between-selection line differences in sensitivity to dietary total lysine: energy indicated that the consequences of changing dietary total lysine: energy will be broadly similar across a range of genotypes, as spanned by the selection lines of the study.

Genetic correlations between performance traits of phase-fed and diet-choice pigs suggested that predictions of genetic merit will be similar with animals tested on either procedure between 30 and 75 kg, but post-75 kg predicted genetic merit for growth rate and lysine intake should be estimated separately for performance on diet-choice or for performance on a given diet. In contrast, predicted genetic merit for fat deposition with performance testing on diet choice will be highly correlated with predicted genetic merit with testing on a single diet.

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