Optimal amino acid requirements for piglets in antibiotic-free feeding programs

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The current trend in the swine industry world-wide is to minimize or eliminate the use of sub-therapeutic levels of antibiotics in pig diets; a practice that has been used especially in nursery diets to control incidences of post-weaning diarrhea and to maintain growth performance. As a result, there has been a great interest to develop alternative therapies and nutritional programs for piglets raised in antibiotic-free feeding programs. There is compelling evidence that under stressful conditions (e.g. disease infection), animals respond by diverting nutrients (especially amino acids) away from supporting growth to supporting the immune system. Therefore, it is prudent to postulate that the availability of essential amino acids that play a role in immunological responses for growth will be limited when piglets are subjected to less than optimal conditions, as is often common in farms. Specifically, studies have indicated that there are additional requirements for such amino acids when pigs are raised under unsanitary conditions or subjected to a disease challenge. This suggests that the current amino acid ratios that were determined for piglets fed antibiotic-supplemented diets may not be suitable for those raised under antibiotic-free feeding programs. Thus, the proposed research will determine the lysine requirement for piglets under unsanitary conditions and establish the optimal ratios to lysine of sulfur amino acids, threonine and tryptophan. This will contribute towards the goal of designing diets to optimize piglet performance under antibiotic-free feeding programs. A wide range of experimental, analytical and statistical techniques will be employed in the project thus providing excellent training opportunities for highly qualified personnel.