Amino Acid Deficiencies in a Lysine Supplemented Low-protein Sunflower Meal Diet for Young Pigs

There has been a dramatic increase in sunflower production during the past few years. Sunflower seeds are used primarily for the production of sunflower oil, thus, the by-product of this pr-0cess is sunflower meal which is available for livestock use. Processes that remove much of the hull, result in a meal that has a protein content similar to that of soybean meal. However, the lysine level of sunflower meal is only approximately 58% of the level in soybean meal. Since synthetic lysine is now readily available it is possible that lysine supplemented sunflower meal could be an alternative for soybean meal in swine diets. This study was conducted to determine other limiting amino acids in a lysine supplemented, 12% protein, corn-sunflower meal diet for young pigs