Effects of dietary lysine levels on performance and immune response of weanling pigs housed at two floor space allowances.

Three 35-d trials involving 288 crossbred weanling pigs (initial weight, 7.1 kg; age, 28 d) were used to determine the separate and interactive effects of two floor space allowances (.28 and .14 m2/pig) and three dietary lysine levels (NRC recommended, NRC+ .1% crystalline lysine-HCl, and NRC+ .2% crystalline lysine-HCl) on growth performance and several factors that measure variation within pens. Each trial was conducted as a 2 x 3 factorial arrangement of treatments in a randomized complete block design. There were four pens (four pigs per pen) for each of the six treatment combinations in each trial. The lysine x floor space allowance interaction was not significant (P = .25) for daily gain, daily feed intake, or gain/feed. Restriction of the floor space allowance decreased (P < .001) daily gain and daily feed intake, but gain/feed was not affected. The humoral immune response, as measured by the level of antibodies produced after two injections of ovalbumin, was not affected by floor space allowance. Addition of .1 and .2% crystalline lysine-HCl improved daily gain (P < .07), gain/feed (P < .10), and humoral immune response (P < .05) and was without effect (P = .28) on feed intake. Natural logarithms of variance, coefficients of variation, and range of daily gain and body weights were not changed by floor space allowance or dietary lysine level. Pigs on adequate and restricted floor space allowances responded similarly to dietary lysine levels.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)