Blood and faecal biomarkers to assess dietary energy, protein and amino acid efficiency of utilization by growing and finishing pigs

Table 5 Blood serum and faecal volatile fatty acid (VFA) profile from 40 finishing pigs grouped by dietary treatment (n = 4) in study 1¹

Traits	Dietary treatment ²					SEM	p-Value
Traits	C1	LP1	HP1	LE1	HE1	SEM	p-Value
Blood serum
Albumin, g/L	36.54	37.08	38.04	36.04	36.53	0.880	0.565
Glucose, mmol/L	5.31	5.24	5.39	4.61	5.68	0.273	0.105
Triglycerides, mmol/L	0.38 ^ab	0.35 ^ab	0.37 ^ab	0.28 ^b	0.42 ^a	0.030	0.023
Cholesterol, mmol/L	2.12 ^ab	2.44 ^a	2.27 ^ab	2.03 ^b	2.24 ^ab	0.084	0.021
Creatinine, µmol/L	123.03 ^ab	127.50 ^ab	123.85 ^ab	117.20 ^b	133.81 ^a	3.966	0.070
Total protein, g/L	67.36 ^a	64.20 ^ab	63.61 ^ab	61.46 ^ab	60.86 ^b	1.509	0.035
Faecal VFA, % of total VFA
Acetic	57.4 ^b	61.6 ^a	62.0 ^a	60.6 ^ab	58.5 ^ab	1.01	0.012
Propionic	21.9	21.4	21.2	22.0	21.7	0.59	0.827
Butyric	11.4	9.8	9.3	10.9	11.0	0.55	0.061
Valeric	2.9 ^a	2.3 ^ab	2.4 ^ab	2.1 ^b	2.6 ^ab	0.15	0.010
VFA, mmol/kg	193.0	158.2	166.9	170.5	154.7	14.98	0.451

¹Blood and faecal samples were collected from 2 pigs/pen selected randomly at the end of the trial at 20 weeks of age (Means ± Standard error mean [SEM])
²Dietary treatments: C1 (Control; 10.03 MJ/kg of NE; 160.0 g of CP; 9.5 g of SID Lys per kg of feed), LP1 (Low Protein; 10.03 MJ/kg of NE; 132.0 g of CP; 7.5 g of SID Lys per kg of feed), HP1 (High Protein; 10.03 MJ/kg of NE; 188.0 g of CP; 11.5 g of SID Lys per kg of feed), LE1 (Low Energy; 9.61 MJ/kg of NE; 160.0 g of CP; 9.5 g of SID Lys per kg of feed), and HE1 (High Energy; 10.45 MJ/kg of NE; 160.0 g of CP; 9.5 g of SID Lys per kg of feed)
^a⁻^bWithin rows, significant differences between groups (P < 0.05)

ISSN: 2055-5660