Dietary supplementation with branched-chain amino acids enhances milk production by lactating sows and the growth of suckling piglets

Table 4 Effects of supplementing branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) to the diets of sows on body weights of sows and piglets as well as their weight changes during lactation

Variable	Control				1.535% BCAA				3.07% BCAA				Pooled SEM	P-value
Variable	d 0	d 3	d 15	d 29	d 0	d 3	d 15	d 29	d 0	d 3	d 15	d 29	Pooled SEM	Treatment	Day	T × D¹
Sow BW, kg	187	184	173	161	185	182	175	169	187	185	183	181	9.1	0.198	0.01	0.791
Piglet BW, kg	1.40	1.84	4.34	9.54	1.41	1.94	5.05	11.5	1.42	2.03	5.34	12.9	0.10	< 0.001	< 0.01	< 0.01
	d 0–3	d 3–15	d 15–29	d 0–29	d 0–3	d 3–15	d 15–29	d 0–29	d 0–3	d 3–15	d 15–29	d 0–29
ADG of piglets, g/d	147	208	371	281	177	259	460	348	203	276	540	396	6.7	< 0.001	< 0.01	< 0.01
BW loss of sows, kg	3.4	11.1	11.7	26.2	3.3	7.4	6.0	16.7	1.3	2.5	2.2	6.0	0.98	< 0.001	< 0.01	< 0.01

Values are means with pooled SEM, n = 10 sows/treatment group. See Table 5 for the number of piglets on d 3, 15 and 29 of lactation.
Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA.
¹Treatment (T), Day (D), and Treatment × Day (T × D) interaction

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