This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of different levels of digestible lysine in diets on the performance of piglets from 6 to 15 kg. One hundred and twenty piglets (80 castrated males and 40 females) were used. The piglets were allotted to a completely randomized block design, with five treatments (1.06, 1.16, 1.26, 1.36, and 1.46% of digestible lysine), eight replicates and three animals per experimental unit, kept in thermoneutral environment. The dietary level of digestible lysine did not affect daily feed intake. However, the digestible lysine intake, weight gain and body protein deposition increased linearly according to the dietary lysine levels. The dietary digestible lysine levels affected feed:gain ratio that reduced in a quadratic way until the estimated dietary digestible lysine level of 1.41%. The estimated level at least of 1.46% provided the higher weight gain and body protein deposition to piglets from 6 to 15 kg on thermoneutral environment.
carcass; lysine; performance; requirement; swine
