Effect of dietary energy levels and phase feeding by protein levels on growth performance, blood profiles and carcass characteristics in growing-finishing pigs

Abstract Background Providing of insufficient nutrients limits the potential growth of pig, while feeding of excessive nutrients increases the economic loss and causes environment pollution. For these reasons, phase feeding had been introduced in swine farm for improving animal production. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary energy levels and phase feeding by protein levels on growth performance, blood profiles and carcass characteristics in growing-finishing pigs. Methods A total of 128 growing pigs ([Yorkshire × Landrace] × Duroc), averaging 26.62 ± 3.07 kg body weight, were assigned in a 2 × 4 factorial arrangement with 4 pigs per pen. The first factor was two dietary energy level (3,265 kcal of ME/kg or 3,365 kcal of ME/kg), and the second factor was four different levels of dietary protein by phase feeding (1growing(G)-2finishing(F) phases, 2G-2F phases, 2G-3F phases and 2G-3F phases with low CP requirement). Results In feeding trial, there was no significant difference in growth performance. The BUN concentration was decreased as dietary protein level decreased in 6 week and blood creatinine was increased in 13 week when pigs were fed diets with different dietary energy level. The digestibility of crude fat was improved as dietary energy levels increased and excretion of urinary nitrogen was reduced when low protein diet was provided. Chemical compositions of longissimus muscle were not affected by dietary treatments. In backfat thickness (P2) at 13 week, pigs fed high energy diet had thicker backfat thickness (P = 0.06) and pigs fed low protein diet showed the trend of backfat thinness reduction (P = 0.09). In addition, water holding capacity was decreased (P = 0.01) and cooking loss was increased (P = 0.07) as dietary protein level reduced. When pigs were fed high energy diet with low subdivision of phase feeding, days to 120 kg market weight was reached earlier compared to other treatments. Conclusion Feeding the low energy diet and subdivision of growing-finishing phase by dietary protein levels had no significant effect on growth performance and carcass characteristics. Also, phase feeding with low energy and low protein diet had no negative effects on growth performance, carcass characteristics but economical profits was improved