COMPENSATORY GROWTH OF ASHANTI BLACK WEANER PIGS: EFFECTS OF CONTINUOUS VERSUS RESTRICTIVE DIETARY INTAKE OF PROTEIN OR ENERGY

Abstract

An experiment was designed to determine the compensatory growth of pigs fed a nutrient-restricted diet and then re-alimented with an energy or protein diet. A total of 24 Ashanti Black weaner pigs (20.97 ± 0.49 kg) were either randomly assigned and fed continuously with a diet formulated to meet their requirements for growth (Standard) or with a restricted diet formulated to meet only 42% and 33% of their crude protein and metabolizable energy requirements, respectively (Restricted) for an entire 80-day period whereas a third and fourth group of pigs were fed the restricted diet for 40 days and then re-alimented with a protein (Re-protein) or energy (Re-Energy) diet for additional 40 days. Data on feed intake, growth performance and weights of body organs were analyzed by PROC GLIMMIX procedure of SAS (1991; SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC) in a completely randomized design. Feed intake did not differ (P=0.646) among all treatments during the first period of 40 days but average daily weight gain and feed efficiency of Restricted, Re-Protein and Re-Energy pigs were lower (P=0.001) than those fed the Standard diet continuously. Feed cost per intake for the entire 80-day period was expectedly higher (P=0.001) for pigs fed the Standard diet. Feed cost per intake for pigs fed the Standard diet was nearly twice that of pigs fed the Restricted diet. However, when the cost was expressed per ADG, the difference was not significant (P=0.212) among diets. These findings suggest that pig farmers could reduce the protein content of their diets and improve their profit margins during seasons of feed scarcity when most protein ingredients are expensive, by restricting dietary intake of protein and re-alimenting it later when proteinous ingredients become abundant, without affecting growth performance of their pigs.