Comparison of Amino Acid Digestibility between Commercial Crossbred Pigs and Mini-Jeju Island Native Pigs

The objectives of this study were to determine the apparent ileal digestibility and standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of crude protein (CP) and amino acids (AA) in feed ingredients, compare the ileal digestibility of CP and AA between commercial crossbred pigs and mini-Jeju Island native pigs (JINP), and develop models for estimating SID of CP and AA for commercial pigs using mini-JINP data. The study involved five crossbred commercial pigs (31.5 ± 1.6 kg of body weight and 11 weeks of age; Landrace × Yorkshire) and five mini-JINP (31.0 ± 3.2 kg body weight and 20 weeks of age). The pigs were surgically equipped with a T-cannula at the end of ileum. Each pig breed was assigned to 5 dietary treatments in a 5 × 10 incomplete Latin square design with 10 periods. Four experimental diets were formulated to contain each of soybean meal, corn gluten feed, copra meal, and sesame expellers as the sole source of nitrogen. A nitrogen-free diet was also prepared to determine basal endogenous losses of CP and AA. No interaction between breed and feed ingredient was observed for the digestibility of CP and all indispensable AA. The SID of CP and all indispensable AA, except Arg, His, and Lys, did not differ between the two breeds of pigs. Prediction equations were developed for SID of CP and AA of commercial pigs using the SID values of mini-JINP: SID of CP (%) = (1.02 × SID of CP in mini-JINP) - 5.20 with r² = 0.97 and <i>p</i> < 0.05; SID of Lys (%) = (1.12 × SID of Lys in mini-JINP) - 9.10 with r² = 0.98 and <i>p</i> < 0.05; and SID of Met (%) = (1.08 × SID of Met in mini-JINP) - 4.27 with r² = 0.96 and <i>p</i> < 0.05. The digestibility for most AA in feedstuffs for commercial pigs can be estimated using data from mini-JINP.