Studies on the threonine requirement of weanling pigs : effects of protein level and amino acid excess

A series of three swine experiments were conducted to quantitatively estimate the threonine requirement of 10 to 20 kg pigs and to study the effects of protein level and excess amino acids on the requirement. A chick growth assay was performed to estimate the bio- availability of threonine in corn. Pigs were allotted randomly within blocks. The treatments were blocked by litter, sex and initial weight in the first experiment and by litter and weight in Experiments 2 and 4. Chicks were allotted within weight groups to one of five dietary treatments in Experiment 3. Gain, feed consumption and gain/ feed were determined in each experiment.