The effect of tryptophan supplementation of diets of restricted- and unrestricted-fed young pigs.

Young pigs (body weight 15-25 kg) were used to study the effect of graded levels of tryptophan supplementation to a diet containing 2.5 g tryptophan/kg dry matter (DM) and having a tryptophan to lysine ratio of 0.17 under restricted and unrestricted feeding conditions. Ad libitum feed intake and growth rate were 0.99 kg DM/day and 0.84 kg/day, respectively, and were not affected by supplementation of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 g tryptophan/kg diet. In restricted-fed piglets (80% of ad libitum intake) tryptophan supplementation did not improve growth rate. Therefore, greater optimum tryptophan to lysine ratios for young fast growing pigs, as concluded from results of some recently published studies in contrast to results of other studies, could not be confirmed. Possible reasons for discrepancies in published values for optimum tryptophan supply are briefly discussed. In accordance with general recommendations given in the literature, it can be concluded that a tryptophan to lysine ratio between 0.17 and 0.18 is sufficient to reach high feed intake and high growth rate in young pigs, when adequately supplied with lysine and other amino acids.