The major objective of this article is to review current knowledge about …

• Abstract
• Submaximal growth of sow-reared piglets ...
• Acknowledgements
• Literature Cited
• Figures
• Tables

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Tables

- Arginine Nutrition in Neonatal Pigs

TABLE 1 Relative contributions of milk vs. endogenous synthesis of arginine to arginine requirements by the 7-d-old (2.5 kg) sow-reared pig

Amounts of arginine   g/d Arginine provision from sow’s milk 1.01     Milk intake (0.78 L/d; 1.43 g/L of whole milk)1 1.12     Undigestible arginine in sow’s milk (9.6%)2 0.11 Arginine requirements for growth and metabolic function 2.7     Body weight gain (200 g/d; 27.2 g progein)3 1.88     Arginine catabolism via arginase and NO synthase4 0.65     Arginine utilization for creatine synthesis5 0.17 Arginine provision from endogenous synthesis 1.69

¹ Wu and Knabe (15).

² Mavromichalis et al. (17).

³ Wu et al. (18).

⁴ Murphy et al. (19).

⁵ Calculated on the basis of urinary excretion of creatinine [0.38 mmol/(kg body wt · d)] (20).

TABLE 2 Enterocyte arginase activity as well as plasma levels of cortisol and amino acids in 14-d-old sow-reared piglets receiving oral administration of water, alanine, or arginine¹

¹ Data are means ± SEM, n = 10. At 4 d of age, pigs received oral administration of arginine-HCl (145 mg/kg body wt), alanine (245.5 mg/kg body wt; isonitrogenous control), or water every 12 h (2 times/d) (Experiment 1), or of arginine-HCl (48.3 mg/kg body wt), alanine (81.8 mg/kg body wt), or water every 4 h (6 times/d) (Experiment 2). The amount of arginine (provided as arginine-HCl) represents 53% of estimated daily arginine intake by the piglet from milk (18). Some pigs did not receive oral administration of any solution and were not handled (the None group). At 14 d of age, 2 h after oral administration of water, alanine or arginine, jugular venous blood samples (3 mL) were obtained for determining plasma amino acids and cortisol, as previously described (5,8). Arginase activity was measured as described by Wu et al. (16). Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA and the Student-Newman-Keul multiple comparison test (SAS, Cary, NC). a–c: Means without a common superscript letter within a column of each experiment differ (P < 0.01).

² Values are nmol/(mg protein · min).

TABLE 3 Plasma concentrations of amino acids in 14-d-old sow-reared piglets receiving oral administration of alanine or citrulline¹

¹ Data are means = SEM, n = 10. At 4 d of age, pigs received oral administration of citrulline (121 mg/kg body wt) or alanine (185 mg/kg body wt; isonitrogenous control) every 12 h (twice daily). At 14 d of age, 2 h after oral administration of alanine or citrulline, jugular venous blood samples (3 mL) were obtained for determining plasma amino acids, as previously described (5). Data were analyzed by unpaired t test (SAS Institute).

^*P < 0.01 vs. the alanine group.

TABLE 4 Effects of oral NCG administration on plasma arginine concentrations and growth of 4- to 14-d-old sow-reared pigs¹

¹ Data are means ± SEM, n = 10. Four-d-old sow-reared piglets received oral administration of 0 or 50 mg NCG (dissolved in water) per kg body wt every 12 h (2 times/d at 0730 and 1930). At d 4 and 14 of age, 2 h after suckling and oral NCG administration, respectively, jugular venous blood samples (3 mL) were obtained from pigs for determining plasma amino acids (16); body weights were measured. Data were analyzed by unpaired t test (SAS Institute).

^*P < 0.01 vs. the control group.