Abstract
One feeding trial and two metabolic trials were conducted to investigate the effects of lysine to protein ratio in practical swine diets on growth performance and efficiency of nitrogen retention and utilization in different growing phases. In Trial one (the feeding trial), 90 mixed sex pigs weighing $9.1{\pm}1.4kg$ (Duroc ${\times}$ Landrance ${\times}$ Beijing Black) were used to study the effects of concentrations of 5.2, 5.3, 5.8, 6.4 and 7.2 g lysine/100 g CP in diets containing 1.2% lysine on growth performance and serum urea nitrogen. The results showed that feed conversion efficiency and economic efficiency were best for pigs fed the diet containing the lysine concentration of 5.8 g /100 g crude protein. Serum urea nitrogen concentration decreased linearly (p=0.0009) and serum free lysine content increased linearly (p=0.0017) as the lysine to protein ratio in diets increased from 5.2 to 7.2 g/100 g. In Trials two and three (the metabolic trials), five growing barrows (Duroc ${\times}$ Landrance ${\times}$ Beijing black), with initial body weights of approximately $26{\pm}2.4kg$ and $56.3{\pm}3.5kg$, respectively, were allotted to five dietary treatments according to a $5{\times}5$ Latin square design. Trial two contained 5.2, 5.7, 6.1, 6.7 and 6.8 g lysine/100 g CP treatments. Trial three contained 4.6, 5.0, 5.6, 6.1 and 6.6 g lysine/100 g CP treatments. The results showed that nitrogen retention in growing pigs decreased linearly (p=0.0011 in Trial two; p=0.0099 in Trial three) as the lysine to protein ratio in diets increased. The ratio of lysine to protein in diets resulting in maximum nitrogen retention was 5.2 g/100 g and 5.0 g/100 g in Trial two and Trial three, respectively. In Trial two, apparent biological value and gross nitrogen efficiency increased linearly (p=0.0135 and p=0.0192, respectively) as the lysine to protein ratio increased from 5.2 to 6.8 g lysine/100 g CP. In summary, we concluded that the optimal Lysine to Protein Ratios for 8-20 kg and 20-80 kg pigs were 5.8 g/100 g and 5.0 to 5.2 g/100 g, respectively.