Skip to main content

Effects of long-chain fatty acid supplementation on the growth performance of grower and finisher pigs: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Background

Supplementation of feed with long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) during the grower and finisher phases has long been discussed as a growth promotion strategy in pigs, but its effects are inconsistent. The purpose of our study was to comprehensively evaluate its effects on the growth performance based on the average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and gain: feed (G:F) ratio and to unveil the roles of the basal diet, LCFA concentration and LCFA saturation.

Results

We searched the PubMed and Web of Science databases (articles published from Jan 1st, 2000, to Sep 30th, 2018; restricted to English) and compared LCFA-supplemented diets with control diets. We retrieved 2346 studies, 18 of which (1314 pigs, 26 records) were eligible for our analysis. We used a random-effects model to calculate the weighted mean differences (WMDs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). LCFA supplementation in the grower-finisher phase improved the ADG (WMD = 41.74 g/d, 95% CI: 8.81 to 74.66, P = 0.013) and G:F ratio (WMD = 0.019, 95% CI: 0.006 to 0.032, P = 0.003). For supplementation solely in the finisher phase, we found a similar performance in the ADG (WMD = 39.93 g/d, 95% CI: 26.48 to 53.38, P < 0.001) and G:F ratio (WMD = 0.019, 95% CI: 0.006 to 0.032, P < 0.001) but a reduction in the ADFI (WMD = − 83.863 g/d, 95% CI: − 156.157 to − 11.569, P = 0.023). Specifically, approximately 5% LCFA supplementation in the finisher phase had significant effects on the ADG (WMD = 51.385 g/d, 95% CI: 35.816 to 66.954, P < 0.001), ADFI (WMD = − 102.869 g/d, 95% CI: − 189.236 to − 16.502, P = 0.02) and G:F ratio (WMD = 0.028, 95% CI: 0.018 to 0.039, P < 0.001), whereas a concentration of approximately 1% exhibited no effects.

Conclusions

Overall, regardless of the basal diet and saturation, LCFA supplementation greatly improves the growth performance of grower and finisher pigs, primarily by increasing the energy density.

Background

Antimicrobial growth promoters (AGPs) have been used in the pig industry for more than 60 years, where they have made impressive contributions in terms of economic benefits and healthy farming [1]. Simultaneously, as a result of extensive use of sub-therapeutic antimicrobials [2], pigs have become an important reservoir of antimicrobial-resistant bacterial strains and genes, which seriously endanger public health [3, 4]. In addition, rapidly rising concerns about food safety from consumers are encouraging animal nutritionists to develop reliable alternatives for growth promotion.

Supplementation of long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs), which is the largest category of fatty acids in animal diets [5], or their compounds into daily rations provides a practical method for achieving better growth performance than diets without additional LCFA supplementation. More importantly, few adverse effects of fatty acids have been found, which ensures easier acceptance of LCFAs as a growth promoter by consumers. According to the National Research Council (NRC) [6], supplementation of grower and finisher feed with fatty acids increases the growth speed, reduces the feed intake and improves the gain efficiency. However, in feeding trials, the effects of LCFA supplementation on growth performance are inconsistent. Our review of previous studies reveals that some influential factors, including the basal diet [corn-soybean vs. distillers’ dried grains with solubles (DDGS)], LCFA concentration (high concentration vs. low concentration) and LCFA saturation (saturated vs. unsaturated), should be considered when exploring the synergistic effects of basal diet with LCFAs, the dosage-dependent effect of such supplementation and the influence of the physicochemical properties of LCFAs, respectively.

Because separate studies differ in the factors considered and inevitably lack an overall investigation [7], we performed a meta-analysis to reveal the effects of LCFA supplementation on grower and finisher pigs and to elucidate the influential factors based on the average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and gain:feed (G:F) ratio.

Methods

This meta-analysis strictly followed the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses [8].

Search strategy

We collected relevant studies published between Jan 1st, 2000, and Sep 30th, 2018, in the PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed; accessed Sep 30th, 2018) and Web of Science (http://webofknowledge.com; accessed Sep 30th, 2018) databases. The date range was chosen based on the development of feeding facilities and improvements in growth performance due to breeding [9]. We restricted the language to English. The search principles were as follows: 1) the terms “grower pig” and “finisher pig” were extended to include “pig”, “swine”, “boar”, “piglet”, “sow”, “gilt” and “barrow”; 2) the terms related to fatty acids were searched in the PubMed database beforehand and shown to be “acids, fatty”, “fatty acids, esterified”, “acids, esterified fatty”, “esterified fatty acids”, “fatty acids, saturated”, “acids, saturated fatty”, “saturated fatty acids”, “aliphatic acids” and “acids, aliphatic”; and 3) growth performance was equal to production performance. The detailed search strategy and findings are shown in Table 1. We also extended our search to the articles referenced by the studies identified for the meta-analysis.

Table 1 Search strategy

Selection criteria and procedure

Studies were eligible for inclusion in our meta-analysis under the conditions that 1) the growth performance parameters (ADG, ADFI and G:F ratio) were reported, 2) LCFAs, LCFA esters, LCFA-rich compounds or LCFA salts were added to the feed throughout the experimental period, 3) the trials were initiated at the growing or finishing phase and terminated at the finishing phase, 4) the ADFI and G:F ratio were calculated by the gross weight of the feed, 5) the genetic background was a commercial breed (e.g., Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire) and 6) the detailed fatty acid composition and protein density were included, with no difference in the protein level. The exclusion criteria were as follows: 1) the major content of the supplement was not LCFAs (e.g., grape seed cake and rice bran); 2) the study lacked a controlled diet without additional fatty acid supplementation; and 3) the basal diet was not corn-soybean or DDGS (e.g., barley diet). Based on these standards, we selectively screened eligible studies for inclusion in the analysis (Fig. 1a).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Study selection process and quality assessment. a Study selection process. b Study quality assessment

The information extracted from the included studies was as follows: author information (first author, year); genetic background; sum number of pigs included in the control and treatment groups; mean initial body weight; mean final body weight; initial phase (grower or finisher); supplemental substance; energy difference; basal diet (corn-soybean or DDGS); concentration (low or high); saturation (saturated or unsaturated); and growth performance (ADG, ADFI and G:F ratio) of the treatment and control groups. One study could have more than one record depending on the treatments and growth phases of the pigs.

The study selection procedure was as follows: 1) two investigators (Z. Li and B. Xu) independently screened the titles and abstracts of the acquired studies and identified relevant studies for full-text reading; 2) disagreements during independent study selection were referred to the third investigator (Y. Wang) for an ultimate resolution; and 3) after the eligible studies were verified according to our criteria, one investigator (Z. Li) extracted the data and information from each study, followed by inspection by the other investigator (B. Xu).

Study quality assessment

Two investigators (Z. Li and B. Xu) performed independent study quality assessment according to the criteria provided in the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials statement [8] and the Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias [10]. The assessment aspects included sequence generation, allocation concealment, blinding of participants and personnel, incomplete outcome data, selective reporting and other bias. The divergences were resolved by the third investigator (Y. Wang) (Fig. 1b).

Within-group SD estimate

Within-group standard deviations (SDs) or standard errors (SEs) are required for a meta-analysis. However, in the included articles, these data usually were missing, and the provided SE of the mean could not be used to calculate the within-group SD. In such cases, first we contacted the authors via email to request the within-group SDs. If raw statistics were not available from the authors, the within-group SDs of growth performance were estimated using 8–15% of the mean value, which was based on the raw statistics of our institute, suggestions from peers in both industry and college settings and relevant data presented by the NRC [6]. Technically, the SD is derived from the random errors in trials and follows a random distribution. Thus, the SD should not be calculated as a single mean ratio. To be prudent, we randomized the SDs of each group and repeated the meta-analysis 10 times to confirm the stability of our results. If we had observed a statistically significant difference, then the meta-analysis would have been regarded as impossible for this topic and ceased. The data used for the subsequent analyses and presentation originated from one of the 10 random processes.

Statistical analysis

The statistical analysis was performed with Stata 12.0 (Stata Corp., USA).

Meta-analysis

We calculated the pooled estimates of the mean differences between the treatment and control groups using a random-effects model [11]. We also used Cochran’s Q statistic (significance level of P ≤ 0.1) and the I2 statistic to quantitatively measure the heterogeneity in our analysis. The grading of heterogeneity was as follows: no heterogeneity, I2 ≤ 25%; low heterogeneity, 25% < I2 ≤ 50%; moderate heterogeneity, 50% < I2 ≤ 75%; and high heterogeneity, I2 > 75% [12].

Regression analysis

To measure the effects of covariants, which in our study are the basal diet, LCFA concentration and LCFA saturation, on the outcomes (ADG, ADFI and G: F ratio), we performed a regression analysis after the meta-analysis. To avoid a false positive result, the regression analysis was applied only to groups with more than 10 records.

Subgroup categorization and analysis

We conducted subgroup analyses to elucidate heterogeneity that was significant (P < 0.05) or beyond a moderate level (I2 > 50%). The included studies were classified into the “corn-soybean diet vs DDGS diet”, “high concentration vs low concentration” and “saturated vs unsaturated” subgroups. The low and high concentrations were set to approximately 1% and 5%, respectively, based on the frequency of occurrence in the included studies and, more importantly, the role of fatty acids in the feed. Low-concentration supplementation (approximately 1%) often applied to unsaturated fatty acids (e.g., conjugated linoleic acid) and was more likely to have biological functions, including biomembrane constitution, signal transduction [13, 14] and eicosanoid precursor action (e.g., prostaglandins, leukotrienes and thromboxanes) [15]. The saturation classification of fatty acid compounds (e.g., animal fat and vegetable oils) was determined by the dominating ratio (> 50%) in the fatty acid composition [16].

Sensitivity analysis

If the heterogeneity was significant (P < 0.05), a sensitivity analysis was performed to identify the study (or studies) that contributed as the main source of the heterogeneity. Heterogeneity and pooled estimates were recalculated after the study or studies (including all records) was deleted from the outcome.

Publication bias

Publication bias was evaluated using Begg’s and Egger’s tests, for which the significance level was defined at P < 0.1 [11]. If Begg’s and Egger’s tests disagreed, Egger’s test was used as a reference. Additionally, the trim-and-fill test was used to further test and adjust for publication bias [17].

Results

Of the 2346 studies identified, we included 18 studies (with data for 1314 pigs) and extracted 26 records for our meta-analysis [18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35]. Except for Juarez et al. [25], in which the pigs were from a commercial farm, all of the studies were performed on clearly defined commercial breeds, with 5 studies (6 records) beginning LCFA supplementation at the grower phase and 13 studies (20 records) beginning it at the finisher phase. The mean initial weights of the growing and finishing pigs were 33.98 kg and 67.78 kg, respectively. All studies ended in the finishing phase, with a mean body weight of 115.32 kg. The categorization of growth phases was combined with both the body weights and the experimental design (Table 2). Because of the nonsignificant publication bias (P > 0.1) in the current meta-analysis, the trim-and-fill test was not performed (Table 3).

Table 2 Characteristics of the included studies
Table 3 Publication bias analysis of the included studies

Effects of LCFA supplementation on the growth performance of grower-finisher pigs

In Fig. 2, we present the overall effects of LCFA supplementation on the growth performance of grower-finisher pigs. Specifically, LCFA supplementation increased the ADG by 41.738 g/d (95% confidence interval (CI): 8.813 to 74.662, P = 0.013) with low heterogeneity (I2 = 45.5%, Pheterogeneity = 0.102) (Fig. 2a). However, LCFA supplementation had no effect on the ADFI (WMD = 7.388 g/d, 95% CI: − 39.937 to 54.713, P = 0.76) with no heterogeneity (I2 = 0.0%, Pheterogeneity = 0.952) (Fig. 2b). LCFA supplementation increased the G:F ratio by 0.019 (95% CI: 0.006 to 0.032, P = 0.003) with low heterogeneity (I2 = 49.4%, Pheterogeneity = 0.079) (Fig. 2c).

Fig. 2
figure 2

Meta-analysis of differences in the growth performances of grower pigs fed LCFAs. a ADG. b ADFI. c G:F ratio. CI = confidence interval; CLA = conjugated linoleic acid; CWG = choice white grease; WMD = weighted mean difference; Pheterogeneity = P value of heterogeneity (significance level Pheterogeneity < 0.05). The small solid diamond represents the point estimate for each individual trial, and the horizontal line extending from each solid diamond represents the upper and lower limits of the 95% CI. The size of the shaded square indicates the relative weight of the trial in the meta-analysis. Small solid diamonds located on the positive quadrant of the X-axis favour an increase in the growth parameters (ADG, ADFI and G:F ratio), whereas those on the negative quadrant favour a decrease. The open diamond represents the WMD and 95% CI of the trials

Regression analysis

According to the regression analysis of LCFA supplementation in finisher pigs (Table 4), the LCFA concentration might play a significant role, especially in determining the ADG (Pregression = 0.014) and G:F ratio (Pregression = 0.007). In contrast, the basal diet and LCFA saturation were not major causes of heterogeneity, because they exhibited no significant effects (Pregression > 0.05) in the regression analyses of the ADG, ADFI, and G:F ratio. Therefore, we focused on the role of the concentration and conducted corresponding subgroup analyses in the subsequent research.

Table 4 Regression analyses of finisher pig studies included in the meta-analysis

Effects of LCFA supplementation on the ADG of finisher pigs

As shown in Fig. 3a, LCFA supplementation increased the ADG by 39.926 g/d (95% CI: 26.477 to 53.375, P = 0.000) with no heterogeneity (I2 = 0.0%, Pheterogeneity = 0.461). Specifically, the high concentration increased the ADG by 51.385 g/d (95% CI: 35.816 to 66.954, P = 0.000) with no heterogeneity (I2 = 0.0%, Pheterogeneity = 0.822), whereas the low concentration did not influence the ADG (WMD = 6.227 g/d, 95% CI: − 20.471 to 32.926, P = 0.460) with no heterogeneity (I2 = 0.0%, Pheterogeneity = 0.854).

Fig. 3
figure 3

Meta-analysis of differences in the growth performances of finisher pigs fed a high/low LCFA concentration. a ADG. b ADFI. c G:F ratio. CI = confidence interval; CLA = conjugated linoleic acid; CWG = choice white grease; WMD = weighted mean difference; Pheterogeneity = P value of heterogeneity (significance level Pheterogeneity < 0.05). The small solid diamond represents the point estimate for each individual trial, and the horizontal line extending from each solid diamond represents the upper and lower limits of the 95% CI. The size of the shaded square indicates the relative weight of the trial in the meta-analysis. Small solid diamonds located on the positive quadrant of the X-axis favour an increase in the growth parameters (ADG, ADFI and G:F ratio), whereas those on the negative quadrant favour a decrease. The open diamond represents the WMD and 95% CI of the trials

Effects of LCFA supplementation on the ADFI of finisher pigs

As presented in Fig. 3b, compared with the ADFI of pigs on the basal diet, LCFA supplementation significantly decreased the ADFI (WMD = − 83.863 g/d, 95% CI: − 156.157 to − 11.569, P = 0.023) with moderate heterogeneity (I2 = 64.5%, Pheterogeneity = 0.023). Only the high concentration reduced the ADFI (WMD = − 102.869 g/d, 95% CI: − 189.236 to − 16.502, P = 0.02), whereas the low LCFA concentration had no effect (WMD = − 7.466 g/d, 95% CI: − 105.667 to 90.735, P = 0.882). We observed a moderate level of heterogeneity (I2 = 70.3%, Pheterogeneity = 0.000) in the high-concentration subgroup and no heterogeneity (I2 = 0.0%, Pheterogeneity = 0.986) in the low-concentration subgroup.

Effects of LCFA supplementation on the G:F ratio of finisher pigs

As shown in Fig. 3c, LCFAs had a significant positive effect on the G:F ratio of the finishers (WMD = 0.022, 95% CI: 0.012 to 0.033, P = 0.000), which was especially strong in the case of high-concentration supplementation (WMD = 0.028, 95% CI: 0.018 to 0.039, P = 0.000). In contrast, low-concentration supplementation of finisher feed had no effect on the G:F ratio (WMD = 0.004, 95% CI: − 0.004 to 0.011, P = 0.331). Although high heterogeneity was detected overall (I2 = 79.3%, Pheterogeneity = 0.000), after the subgroup analysis, the majority of the heterogeneity was attributed to the high-concentration subgroup (I2 = 69.1%, Pheterogeneity = 0.000) rather than the low-concentration subgroup (I2 = 0.0%, Pheterogeneity = 0.884).

Discussion

In swine husbandry, AGPs have been shown to be unquestionably stable and to have excellent effects on growth performance and animal health [36]. Therefore, with global banning of AGPs, a long list of alternatives (including antimicrobial peptides, organic acids, enzymes, probiotics, prebiotics, essential oils and metal oxides) has been intensively researched and developed to compensate for the vacancy [37, 38]. These alternative substances exhibit similar or even better effects than AGPs against pathogen infections, oxidation and inflammation in animal trials [38]. However, the majority of alternative strategies are focused on health; in terms of promotion of growth performance, they yield mostly inconsistent results that are unequal to the effects of AGPs [37]. In addition, the administration route and economic costs indicate that much work is required for large-scale utilization of the listed alternatives for growth promotion. In this context, we focus on a conventional feedstuff, LCFAs, because of their extensive sources, cost effectiveness, safety, oral administration and potential functional roles [39,40,41]. Based on a systematic, large-scale literature search and meta-analysis, we were able to comprehensively and quantitatively confirm the beneficial effects of LCFAs on pig growth performance. Regression analyses of the basal diet, concentration and saturation (Table 4) together with subgroup analysis of the concentration in finisher pigs (Figs. 2 and 3) further suggested that the benefits were concentration-dependent.

As shown in Table 2, the improved changes in growth performance of the growing and finishing pigs fed different LCFAs were mainly associated with the energy level. Of the 18 studies (26 records) included in our meta-analysis, 13 (20 records) revealed an elevated energy density after LCFA supplementation. Thus, even a lower feed intake is able to meet the caloric requirements of pigs. Moreover, intake of additional LCFAs will improve the digestibility of amino acids by lowering the gastric emptying speed and increasing the time of exposition to proteolytic enzymes [42,43,44]. As a consequence, a higher ratio of amino acids in feed will participate in meat production, which in turn increases the weight gain and gain efficiency.

Our findings revealed no differences in the effects of saturated and unsaturated LCFAs on growth performance (Table 4). Unsaturated fatty acids (e.g., linoleic acid) are essential in pig feed because of the absence of desaturase enzymes [9]. In pig farming, essential unsaturated fatty acids improve sow fertility and piglet growth [45,46,47] via their beneficial effects on neural development, immune responses and gut health [39,40,41]. Nevertheless, for growers and finishers, whose body systems are highly mature, the primary role of fatty acids is to be oxidized and to store and supply energy. Additionally, the regression analysis indicated that the addition of DDGS to a corn-soybean diet did not impair the promoting function of LCFAs, which was in accordance with the review of Stein and Shurson [48].

As shown in Fig. 3, the significant heterogeneity in the ADFI and G:F ratio of the finishers was primarily driven by the high-concentration subgroup. In the sensitivity analyses, we found that Villela et al. [32] (2 records) and Liu et al. [34] (4 records) were the major sources of heterogeneity (data not shown). After excluding the 2 studies (6 records), the overall and high-concentration subgroup heterogeneity in the ADFI became nonsignificant. Additionally, exclusion of the 6 records from the ADFI analysis caused the originally negative effects of LCFA supplementation on the overall group and high-concentration subgroup to become nonsignificant. For the G:F ratio, removing the 6 records decreased the heterogeneity but did not influence the significance of the pooled estimates. The differences in heterogeneity and statistical significance of the pooled estimates were primarily due to the variation in energy density. In the trial of Villela et al. [32], the metabolizable energy of the diet with 5% minimally refined cottonseed oil (3537 kcal/kg) in two phases (55–90 kg and 90–120 kg) was 253 kcal/kg higher than that of the control diet (3284 kcal/kg). Because the gossypol concentration (0.001%) was too low to exert any adverse effects on the growth performance [49], Villela et al. [32] concluded that the energy density was the key reason for the changes in growth performance. To clarify the concentration dependency of the results, we initially set the concentrations to approximately 1% and 5% for the low- and high-concentration groups, respectively (Table 2). The concentration applied in the study of Liu et al. [41] was the highest (6%) among the included studies, and the energy difference between the group with 6% lipid supplementation (3600 kcal/kg) and the control group (3320 kcal/kg) was also considerable (270 kcal/kg). Therefore, a lower ADFI still provided sufficient energy for weight gain and enhanced the gain efficiency, indicating that the promotion of growth performance by LCFAs was related to an increased energy density.

The limitation of our study is the effects of within-group SD estimates on the pooled estimates. Due to the lack of within-group SDs in animal nutrition studies, we had to perform our meta-analysis based on within-group SDs estimated using 8–15% of the mean values. Because SD values impact the 95% CIs and the weight of an individual study, they also affect the pooled estimates and heterogeneity. To improve the validity of our findings, we compared the estimate range with the true values to test its accuracy. With data provided by the Moran group, we found that the true within-group SDs of the ADG and G:F ratio were precisely located within our estimate range. In contrast, the SD for the ADFI was under the lower limit because of the data collection method. Unlike the ADG and G:F ratio, in most cases the ADFI of each commercial pig can be obtained only by dividing the total intake per pen by the number of pigs. This method masks individual variation, causing a lower within-group SD than we would predict. Similar to the SDs of the ADG and G:F ratio, the variation in ADFI should be consistent with the calculated SD range. However, the dominant contributor to the pooled estimates was the mean difference of each study instead of the 95% CI and weight. The random-effects model we used was capable of balancing the differences in individual weights and therefore highlighting the role of mean differences. Taken together, both the accurate SD estimates and the primary role of the mean difference between the treatment and control groups ensure that this meta-analysis conducted on within-group SD estimates is reliable.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that LCFA supplementation of feed improves the ADG and G:F ratio of both growers and finishers, whereas LCFA supplementation leads to a reduction in the ADFI of finishers. Moreover, for finishers, only a high LCFA concentration (approximately 5%) is capable of enhancing the ADG and G:F ratio and decreasing the ADFI, whereas the basal diet category (corn-soybean vs. DDGS) and the saturation level (saturated vs. unsaturated) have small effects on the ADG, ADFI and G:F ratio of finisher pigs. These findings indicate that the positive effects of LCFA supplementation result from an increased energy density. Further experimental research is required to establish the optimal supplemental LCFA concentration and to explore appropriate sources.

Availability of data and materials

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

Abbreviations

ADFI:

Average daily feed intake

ADG:

Average daily gain

AGP:

Antimicrobial growth promoter

CI:

Confidence interval

CLA:

Conjugated linoleic acid

CWG:

Choice white grease

DDGS:

Distillers’ dried grains with solubles

DHA:

Docosahexaenoic acid

G:F ratio:

Gain: Feed ratio

SD:

Standard deviation

SE:

Standard error

WMD:

Weighted mean difference

References

  1. Cromwell GL. Why and how antibiotics are used in swine production. Anim Biotechnol. 2002;13:7–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Van Boeckel TP, Brower C, Gilbert M, Grenfell BT, Levin SA, Robinson TP, et al. Global trends in antimicrobial use in food animals. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015;112:5649–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Marshall BM, Levy SB. Food animals and antimicrobials: impacts on human health. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2011;24:718–33.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Vishnuraj MR, Kandeepan G, Rao KH, Chand S, Kumbhar V. Occurrence, public health hazards and detection methods of antibiotic residues in foods of animal origin: a comprehensive review. Cogent Food Agric. 2016;2:1235458.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Schonfeld P, Wojtczak L. Short- and medium-chain fatty acids in energy metabolism: the cellular perspective. J Lipid Res. 2016;57:943–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. NRC. Nutrient requirements of swine. 11th ed. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 2012.

  7. Shurson GC, Kerr BJ, Hanson AR. Evaluating the quality of feed fats and oils and their effects on pig growth performance. J Anim Sci Biotechnol. 2015;6:10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Moher D, Shamseer L, Clarke M, Ghersi D, Liberati A, Petticrew M, et al. Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement. Syst Rev. 2015;4(1).

  9. Rosero DS, Boyd RD, Odle J, Van Heugten E. Optimizing dietary lipid use to improve essential fatty acid status and reproductive performance of the modern lactating sow: a review. J Anim Sci Biotechnol. 2016;7:34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Higgins JP, Altman DG, Gotzsche PC, Juni P, Moher D, Oxman AD, et al. The Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias in randomised trials. BMJ. 2011;343:d5928.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Eng C, Kramer CK, Zinman B, Retnakaran R. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist and basal insulin combination treatment for the management of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2014;384:2228–34.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Higgins JP, Thompson SG, Deeks JJ, Altman DG. Measuring inconsistency in meta-analyses. BMJ. 2003;327:557–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Jump DB. The biochemistry of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. J Biol Chem. 2002;277:8755–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Kitajka K, Sinclair AJ, Weisinger RS, Weisinger HS, Mathai M, Jayasooriya AP, et al. Effects of dietary omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on brain gene expression. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004;101:10931–6.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Palmquist DL. Omega-3 fatty acids in metabolism, health, and nutrition and for modified animal product foods. Prof Anim Sci. 2009;25:207–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Boyle MA, Roth SL. Personal nutrition. 6th ed. Boston: Thomson/Wadsworth; 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Duval S, Tweedie R. Trim and fill: a simple funnel-plot-based method of testing and adjusting for publication bias in meta-analysis. Biometrics. 2000;56:455–63.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Engel JJ, Smith JW 2nd, Unruh JA, Goodband RD, O’Quinn PR, Tokach MD, et al. Effects of choice white grease or poultry fat on growth performance, carcass leanness, and meat quality characteristics of growing-finishing pigs. J Anim Sci. 2001;79:1491–501.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Thiel-Cooper RL, Parrish FC Jr, Sparks JC, Wiegand BR, Ewan RC. Conjugated linoleic acid changes swine performance and carcass composition. J Anim Sci. 2001;79:1821–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Sun D, Zhu X, Qiao S, Fan S, Li D. Effects of conjugated linoleic acid levels and feeding intervals on performance, carcass traits and fatty acid composition of finishing barrows. Arch Anim Nutr. 2004;58:277–86.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Benz JM, Tokach MD, Nelssen JL, Derouchey JM, Goodband RD, Dritz SS. Effects of increasing added choice white grease in corn and sorghum-based diets on growth performance and fat quality characteristics of finishing pigs. Kansas Agric Exp Stn Res Rep. 2007(10):150–8.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Apple JK, Maxwell CV, Kutz BR, Rakes LK, Sawyer JT, Johnson ZB, et al. Interactive effect of ractopamine and dietary fat source on pork quality characteristics of fresh pork chops during simulated retail display. J Anim Sci. 2008;86:2711–22.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Eastwood L, Kish PR, Beaulieu AD, Leterme P. Nutritional value of flaxseed meal for swine and its effects on the fatty acid profile of the carcass. J Anim Sci. 2009;87:3607–19.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Jaturasitha S, Khiaosa-Ard R, Pongpiachan P, Kreuzer M. Early deposition of n-3 fatty acids from tuna oil in lean and adipose tissue of fattening pigs is mainly permanent. J Anim Sci. 2009;87:693–703.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Juarez M, Dugan ME, Aldai N, Aalhus JL, Patience JF, Zijlstra RT, et al. Feeding co-extruded flaxseed to pigs: effects of duration and feeding level on growth performance and backfat fatty acid composition of grower-finisher pigs. Meat Sci. 2010;84:578–84.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Benz JM, Tokach MD, Dritz SS, Nelssen JL, DeRouchey JM, Sulabo RC, et al. Effects of choice white grease and soybean oil on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and carcass fat quality of growing-finishing pigs. J Anim Sci. 2011;89:404–13.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Rickard JW, Wiegand BR, Pompeu D, Hinson RB, Gerlemann GD, Disselhorst R, et al. The effect of corn distiller's dried grains with solubles, ractopamine, and conjugated linoleic acid on the carcass performance, meat quality, and shelf-life characteristics of fresh pork following three different storage methods. Meat Sci. 2012;90:643–52.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Lee JW, Kil DY, Keever BD, Killefer J, McKeith FK, Sulabo RC, et al. Carcass fat quality of pigs is not improved by adding corn germ, beef tallow, palm kernel oil, or glycerol to finishing diets containing distillers dried grains with solubles. J Anim Sci. 2013;91:2426–37.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Wang LS, Shi Z, Gao R, Su BC, Wang H, Shi BM, et al. Effects of conjugated linoleic acid or betaine on the growth performance and fatty acid composition in backfat and belly fat of finishing pigs fed dried distillers grains with solubles. Animal. 2015;9:569–75.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Stephenson EW, Vaughn MA, Burnett DD, Paulk CB, Tokach MD, Dritz SS, et al. Influence of dietary fat source and feeding duration on finishing pig growth performance, carcass composition, and fat quality. J Anim Sci. 2016;94:2851–66.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Upadhaya SD, Yun HM, Huang S, Kim IH. Efficacy of dietary supplementation of fatty acid compound on performance and production in finishing pigs. Trop Anim Health Prod. 2017;49:1281–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Villela C, Cox RB, Shurson GC, Compart KM, Urriola PE, Johnston LJ. Effects of adding minimally refined cottonseed oil or crude glycerol to diets containing 40% corn distiller's dried grains with solubles on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and pork fat firmness of growing-finishing pigs. J Anim Sci. 2017;95:3057–67.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. De Tonnac A, Mourot J. Effect of dietary sources of n-3 fatty acids on pig performance and technological, nutritional and sensory qualities of pork. Animal. 2018;12:1527–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Liu Y, Kil DY, Perez-Mendoza VG, Song M, Pettigrew JE. Supplementation of different fat sources affects growth performance and carcass composition of finishing pigs. J Anim Sci Biotechnol. 2018;9:56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Moran CA, Morlacchini M, Keegan JD, Fusconi G. Dietary supplementation of finishing pigs with the docosahexaenoic acid-rich microalgae, Aurantiochytrium limacinum: effects on performance, carcass characteristics and tissue fatty acid profile. Asian-Australas J Anim Sci. 2018;31:712–20.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Doyle ME. Alternatives to antibiotic use for growth promotion in animal husbandry. Food research institude briefings: University of Winsconsin; 2001. https://www.iatp.org/sites/default/files/Alternatives_to_Antibiotic_Use_for_Growth_Prom.pdf. Accessed 25 Oct 2018

  37. Thacker PA. Alternatives to antibiotics as growth promoters for use in swine production: a review. J Anim Sci Biotechnol. 2013;4:35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Omonijo FA, Ni L, Gong J, Wang Q, Lahaye L, Yang C. Essential oils as alternatives to antibiotics in swine production. Anim Nutr. 2018;4:126–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Innis SM. Dietary (n-3) fatty acids and brain development. J Nutr. 2007;137:855–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Jacobi SK, Moeser AJ, Corl BA, Harrell RJ, Blikslager AT, Odle J. Dietary long-chain PUFA enhance acute repair of ischemia-injured intestine of suckling pigs. J Nutr. 2012;142:1266–71.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Liu Y, Chen F, Odle J, Lin X, Jacobi SK, Zhu H, et al. Fish oil enhances intestinal integrity and inhibits TLR4 and NOD2 signaling pathways in weaned pigs after LPS challenge. J Nutr. 2012;142:2017–24.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Li S, Sauer WC. The effect of dietary fat content on amino acid digestibility in young pigs. J Anim Sci. 1994;72:1737–43.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Albin DM, Smiricky MR, Wubben JE, Gabert VM. The effect of dietary level of soybean oil and palm oil on apparent ileal amino acid digestibility and postprandial flow patterns of chromic oxide and amino acids in pigs. Can J Anim Sci. 2001;81:495–503.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Cervantes-Pahm SK, Stein HH. Effect of dietary soybean oil and soybean protein concentration on the concentration of digestible amino acids in soybean products fed to growing pigs. J Anim Sci. 2008;86:1841–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Spencer JD, Wilson L, Webel SK, Moser RL, Webel DM. Effect of feeding protected n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (FertiliumTM) on litter size in gilts. J Anim Sci. 2004;82:81.

  46. Webel SK, Otto-Tice ER, Moser RL, Orr DE Jr. Effect of feeding duration of protected n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (FertiliumTM) on litter size and embryo survival in sows. J Anim Sci. 2004;82:81.

  47. Kim SW, Mateo RD, Yin Y-L, Wu G. Functional amino acids and fatty acids for enhancing production performance of sows and piglets. Asian Australas J Anim Sci. 2007;20:295–306.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Stein HH, Shurson GC. Board-invited review: the use and application of distillers dried grains with solubles in swine diets. J Anim Sci. 2009;87:1292–303.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  49. Hale F, Lyman CM. Effect of protein level in the ration on gossypol tolerance in growing-fattening pigs. J Anim Sci. 1957;16:364–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are sincerely grateful for the assistance with statistical analysis from Dr. Tiejun Tong of Hong Kong Baptist University and the suggestions on the format from Dr. Chunmei Li of Nanjing Agricultural University.

Funding

This study was supported by the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant #3163000269), National Special Fund for Modern Industrial Technology System (grant #CARS-35), and Major Science and Technology Special Fund of Zhejiang Province (grant #2015C02022).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

ZLi and BX participated in study quality assessment, study criteria selection, and the statistical analyses. ZLi extracted data. ZLi and YW wrote the final version of the manuscript. YW oversaw the development of the study and resolved conflicts in the meta-analysis. ZLu provided referenced books and papers. All of the authors were involved in the study design and manuscript preparation.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yizhen Wang.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, Z., Xu, B., Lu, Z. et al. Effects of long-chain fatty acid supplementation on the growth performance of grower and finisher pigs: a meta-analysis. J Animal Sci Biotechnol 10, 65 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40104-019-0374-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40104-019-0374-1

Keywords