Digestible energy levels for gilts in a high temperature environment

Abstract

Fifty crossbred female piglets, from 30 to 60 kg, were used to evaluate the effects of five dietary digestible energy (DE) levels on performance and carcass composition at a high environmental temperature (32.04 ± 0.88°C). The experimental design was randomized blocks with five treatments (3 100, 3 250, 3 400, 3 550, and 3 700 kcal DE/kg), five replicates and two animals per experimental unit. DE level did not influence daily weight gain, (treatment means from 641 to 687 g) or intakes of feed, energy and protein. Feed conversion improved linearly (P<.05) with increasing dietary DE level. The diet with 3 700 kcal ED/kg, in which soybean oil supplied 20.8% of the total energy, gave the best feed conversion (2.34 g/g). Protein deposition rate decreased (P<.05), while fat deposition rate increased (P<.01) linearly with increasing DE concentration.