Ractopamine supplementation increases lean deposition in entire and immunocastrated male pigs
K. L. Moore A E , F. R. Dunshea B , B. P. Mullan A , D. P. Hennessy C and D. N. D’Souza DA Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia, Locked Bag 4, Bentley Delivery Centre, WA 6983, Australia.
B Melbourne School of Land and Environment, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic. 3010, Australia.
C Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd, 45 Poplar Road, Parkville, Vic. 3052, Australia.
D Australian Pork Limited, PO Box 148, Deakin West, ACT 2600, Australia.
E Corresponding author. Email: karen.moore@agric.wa.gov.au
Animal Production Science 49(12) 1113-1119 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN09076
Submitted: 6 May 2009 Accepted: 21 August 2009 Published: 16 November 2009
Abstract
Sixty entire male pigs (Large White × Landrace × Duroc crossbred) were individually reared from 45 to 114 kg liveweight in a 2 by 3 factorial experiment to determine the interactive effects of sex (entire male pigs v. male pigs immunologically castrated using Improvac with vaccinations administered at 13 weeks of age and 5 weeks before slaughter) and a ractopamine feeding program (constantly fed 0 or 5 ppm ractopamine for 26 days before slaughter v. a step-up program where 5 ppm of ractopamine was fed for 14 days followed by 10 ppm ractopamine for the final 12 days before slaughter) on growth performance, carcass composition and pork quality. Following the second vaccination, immunocastrated pigs ate more (P < 0.001) and grew faster (P < 0.05) than entire male pigs without affecting feed conversion efficiency. Dietary ractopamine supplementation for the last 26 days before slaughter improved feed conversion ratio (P = 0.024) and daily gain (P = 0.046). Dietary ractopamine supplementation also increased carcass total tissue (P = 0.023) and total lean (P = 0.027) content without affecting the objective meat quality (P > 0.05) in both entire and immunocastrated male pigs. The effects of dietary ractopamine and immunocastration were additive, such that pigs that were immunocastrated and received ractopamine grew 18% faster than control entire males. However, a step-up program of ractopamine supplementation did not provide further improvements in growth performance and carcass composition when compared with constant 5 ppm ractopamine supplementation. These findings indicate that ractopamine supplementation improved growth performance in entire and immunocastrated male pigs, thereby offering a means of improving growth performance of entire males without detrimental effects on pork quality.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank staff at the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia for their assistance in the collection of the experimental data. The financial support of Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd is also acknowledged.
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