Digestible tryptophan levels in diets for pigs weighing 15 to 30 kg

In order to evaluate the effects of increasing dietary tryptophan levels on performance and carcass characteristics of growing pigs, a total of 60 crossbred castrated male pigs, with average initial and final body weights of 15.50 +/- 1.15 and 30.60 +/- 1.35 kg were used. Pigs were allotted in a completely randomized block design, with five dietary treatments (0.149, 0.158, 0.168, 0.177, and 0.187% digestible tryptophan, corresponding to digestible tryptophan: lysine relations of 16.0, 17.0, 18.0, 19.0, and 20.0%), six replicates, and two animals per experimental unit, which was represented by the pen. Experimental diets and water were supplied ad libitum throughout the experimental period. The average maximum and minimum temperatures inside the rooms were of 21.5 +/- 1.12 degrees C and 26.4 +/- 1.91 degrees C, respectively. There was no effect of digestible tryptophan on daily feed intake or protein deposition of pigs. Body weight gain increased quadratically with increasing digestible tryptophan in the diets up to 0.175% maximum response. Increasing digestible tryptophan in the diets linearly improved feed conversion of pigs. The greatest weight gain of 15 to 30 kg castrated male pigs is obtained at 0.175% digestible tryptophan, corresponding to a digestible tryptophan: lysine relation of 18.82% and an estimated daily intake of 2.32 grams of digestible tryptophan.