Arginine and its Relationship to the Antibiotic Growth Response in Swine

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Abstract
Two assays were conducted with weanling pigs to determine if the antibiotic growth response results from a reduction in the portion of urea-cycle arginine required for ammonia detoxification. Several laboratories have shown that antibiotic feeding reduces gut ammonia release and consequently portal ammonia flow to the liver. Growth responses have thus been observed in rats when arginine-deficient diets were supplemented with either arginine or antibiotics. In the first assay, 100 weanling pigs were assigned to five dietary treatments with four replicates each. The .49 kg average daily gain by pigs fed the 19% crude protein, corn-soy basal diet was not improved (P<.05) by the addition of either 1.0% arginine or 1.72% glycine, but recommended levels of either a gram-positive antibiotic (tylosin) or a broad spectrum combination (chlortetracycline, penicillin and sulfamethazine) improved (P<.05) average daily gain and gain-feed ratio over that recorded for the remaining treatments. Urinary orotic acid, a proposed indicator of arginine status, was not depressed by arginine addition. A factorial arrangement of 15 treatments was employed in the second assay with three levels of protein-deficient (12%), adequate (19%) and excess (26%); and five dietary additives consisting of both antibacterial agents and arginine. Pigs gained faster (P<.05) when fed antibiotic-fortified diets, but neither a low level (.5%) nor a high level (1.5%) of arginine elicited a response. From these studies it is apparent that the antibiotic growth response in swine is unrelated to endogenous sparing of arginine. Copyright © 1977. American Society of Animal Science . Copyright 1977 by American Society of Animal Science.

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