Effects of inclusion level and amino acid supplementation on energy values of soybean oil determined with difference or regression methods in growing pigs.

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of inclusion level and amino acid (AA) supplementation on energy values of soybean oil (SO) as determined by difference method or regression method when fed to growing pigs.

Methods: Thirty-six barrows (initial BW: 28.0 ± 1.3 kg) were randomly assigned to one of 6 dietary treatments, which included 2 control diets formulated using a basal diet with or without AA supplementation, and 4 experimental diets with 5% or 10% SO addition in the 2 control diets, respectively. All pigs were individually housed in metabolism crates for 19 d, and during the last 5 d, total urine and feces production were collected. The nutrient digestibility in diets and the digestible energy (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) values of SO were determined using the difference method and the regression method, respectively.

Results: Our results showed that there were no interaction effects (p > 0.05) between AA supplementation and SO inclusion levels on energy values of SO and dietary nutrient digestibility. The DE and ME values of SO determined by the difference method were not affected (p > 0.05) by AA supplementation, however, the ME value of SO increased (p < 0.05) as the inclusion level of SO increased. Moreover, the energy values of SO determined using the regression method were close to those determined using difference method with 10% SO inclusion, but were greater than those obtained using difference method with 5% SO inclusion.

Conclusion: We concluded that the DE and ME values of SO increased with the inclusion level but were not affected by AA supplementation in the range of 0% to 10%. The difference method can substitute for the regression method to determine the DE and ME values of SO when the inclusion level is 10%, but not at 5% inclusion level.