Interactive effects among porcine somatotropin, the beta-adrenergic agonist salbutamol, and dietary lysine on growth performance and nitrogen balance of finishing swine.

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the interactive effects among porcine somatotropin (pST), salbutamol, and dietary lysine on growth performance, nitrogen balance, and carcass characteristics of finishing barrows (n = 32; 62.8 kg initially). Two replicate 32-d studies were set up in a split-plot design to evaluate singular and combined use of pST (0 or 4 mg/d) and salbutamol (0 or 2.75 ppm of the diet) as whole-plot treatments and diets containing .8, 1.2, 1.6, or 2.0% lysine as subplot treatments. Dietary lysine levels were administered within subplots in a 4 x 4 Latin square with pigs allowed 4 d of adjustment to diets followed by 4 d of urine and feces collection for determination of N retention and apparent digestibility of DM and N. Interactions between lysine and salbutamol were not found (P > .16). A pST x lysine interaction (P < .05) resulted in ADG being maximized at 1.2% lysine for pST-treated pigs (lysine quadratic, P < .02) but decreased linearly (P < .02) with increasing lysine for pigs receiving buffer. Pigs injected with 4 mg/d of pST had improved gain:feed (G:F) up to 1.2% lysine (lysine quadratic, P < .05), but no further increase to 2% lysine, whereas pigs injected with buffer showed no benefit from increased lysine (pST x lysine, P < .06). Pigs receiving buffer had greater increases in plasma urea N (PUN) as lysine increased than those receiving pST (pST x lysine, P < .002), but PUN was reduced by pST (P < .001) regardless of lysine level.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)