A review of compensatory growth following lysine restriction in grow-finish pigs1

Abstract

Compensatory growth induced by lysine (Lys) restriction in grow-finish pigs is a complex physiological process affected by many factors and interactions, principally genotype, stage of growth at restriction, nature of nutritional restriction, and patterns of restriction and recovery. The scarcity of standard comparisons across the literature has hindered the characterization of important determinants of compensatory growth. Therefore, the present publication aims to review the current state of knowledge on compensatory growth induced by Lys restriction in grow-finish pigs, develop a database from peer-reviewed literature to standardize comparisons to characterize the occurrence of compensatory growth, and provide practical considerations for compensatory growth under field conditions. The literature search focused on publications directly or indirectly evaluating compensatory growth by having a period of Lys restriction followed by a recovery period of Lys sufficiency for grow-finish pigs. The database included 14 publications and 57 comparisons expressed as relative differences of restricted pigs compared to nonrestricted pigs. The database analysis described compensatory growth into complete, incomplete, and no compensatory growth categories and characterized the patterns of restriction and recovery in each category. The review of literature and database analysis supports the occurrence of compensatory growth induced by Lys restriction in grow-finish pigs. The degree of Lys restriction and duration of restriction and recovery periods seem to be critical in explaining differences between complete and incomplete compensatory growth, whereas Lys level in the recovery period seems to be critical between incomplete or no compensatory growth. Compensatory growth seems to be more likely if: 1) the degree of Lys restriction is between 10% and 30%; 2) Lys restriction is induced before pigs reach their maximum protein deposition; 3) duration of Lys restriction is short (maximum 40–45% overall duration) and duration of recovery period is long (minimum 55–60% overall duration); and 4) Lys level in recovery is close to or above the estimated requirements. In addition, compensatory growth can occur under commercial conditions and there seems to be an opportunity to exploit compensatory growth in grow-finish pigs to reduce feed cost and improve feed efficiency under certain market conditions.

Evaluation of nutritional strategies to slow growth rate then induce compensatory growth in 90-kg finishing pigs

“…Compensatory growth has been categorized into complete, incomplete, and no compensatory growth ( Menegat et al, 2020 ). It can be affected by several factors, such as the stage of growth at restriction, severity of restriction, and duration of restriction and recover periods ( Skiba, 2005 ; Hector and Nakagawa, 2012 ; Menegat et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Compensatory growth has been categorized into complete, incomplete, and no compensatory growth ( Menegat et al, 2020 ). It can be affected by several factors, such as the stage of growth at restriction, severity of restriction, and duration of restriction and recover periods ( Skiba, 2005 ; Hector and Nakagawa, 2012 ; Menegat et al, 2020 ). Complete compensatory growth refers to previously restricted pigs having faster growth rates during recovery and obtaining a similar BW compared to nonrestricted pigs at a similar age.…”

“…In addition, as processing plants re-opened or increased their processing capability, pigs were often switched from the Lys-restricted corn-based diets formulated to restrict growth, to more standard diets with sufficient Lys concentrations to attempt to recover growth rates. For growing-finishing pigs, switching from Lys-restricted diets to Lys-sufficient diets can induce compensatory growth, a physiological process of animals having accelerated growth rate after a period of restriction ( Hornick et al, 2000 ; Menegat et al, 2020 ). Therefore, our objectives were to determine the effects of feeding diets with severely deficient SID Lys and other AA concentrations to reduce growth rates, and second, to evaluate the effects of Lys-induced compensatory gain on growth performance and carcass characteristics of late-finishing pigs beyond 90-kg BW.…”

Evaluation of increased fiber, decreased amino acids, or decreased electrolyte balance as dietary approaches to slow finishing pig growth rates

“…This contradicts previous work, where compensatory gain was observed in pigs after pigs were fed a similarly formulated amino acid-restricted diet ( Rao et al, 2021 ) but agrees with research reported by Norton et al (2020) . This may be due to differences in pig genetics, growth stage, or feeding period duration, all of which may influence the observance of compensatory gain after protein restriction ( Menegat et al, 2020 ). Interestingly, high NDF-fed pigs actually had reduced ADG during the 7 d compensatory period.…”

The Implications of Nutritional Strategies that Modify Dietary Energy and Lysine for Growth Performance in Two Different Swine Production Systems

“…Similarly, although it was not the aim of Exp. 1, the lower F/G in the finishing phase observed in pigs fed the low SID Lys diet between 20–40 kg BW could be related to an effect similar to compensatory growth [ 47 ]. However, it could be that if SID Lys in the common diets was not sufficiently high, only F/G would improve, but not ADG.…”