Influence of feeding thermally peroxidized lipids on performance of growing pigs

Authors: Kerr, Brian; WILSON, VICTORIA CLAIRE - Iowa State University; ZHANG, JUNWEI - University Of Minnesota; CHEN, CHI - University Of Minnesota

Submitted to: Journal of Animal Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/23/2025
Publication Date: 1/26/2025
Citation: Kerr, B.J., Wilson, V., Zhang, J., Chen, C. 2025. Influence of feeding thermally peroxidized lipids on performance of growing pigs. Journal of Animal Science. https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skaf015.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skaf015

Interpretive Summary: Fats and oils are an important source of energy in swine feed diets because they provide a concentrated source of energy compared to other commonly used substances in livestock feeds. High temperatures used during the processing of fats and oils can, however, result in the formation of undesirable substances called lipid peroxidation products, which when consumed by the animal can reduce animal growth. The experiments conducted herein evaluated the effect of feeding thermally processed choice white grease, palm oil, and soybean oil on body weight gain, feed intake, and efficiency of feed use in growing pigs. Results from this experiment indicate that the lipid peroxidation products caused by heating these fats and oils resulted in reduced growth rate, feed intake, and the efficiency of feed use in growing pigs, and that the amounts of these compounds can help predict relative animal performance. This information is important for nutritionists at universities, feed companies, and pig production facilities for the determination of the impact of feeding thermally processed fats and oils on pig performance, thereby providing a basis from which to assess their economic value.

Technical Abstract: Feeding pigs lipids which contain high levels of lipid peroxidation products (LOP) has been shown to reduce growth performance, but data is lacking on quantifying the relationship between LOP and pig growth, feed intake and feed efficiency. Four experiments (EXP) were conducted using soybean oil (SO; EXP 1, 2, and 3) or SO, choice white grease (CWG) and palm oil (PO), EXP 4, to evaluate the impact of feeding pigs (6.2 – 13.4 kg, EXP 1, 13.5 – 23.7 kg, EXP 2; 20.3 – 36.9 kg, EXP 3; 29.6 – 44.1 kg, EXP 4) diets containing contained different amounts of LOP on pig performance. Lipid peroxidation was carried out using variable heating temperatures and times to generate lipids with a range of peroxide (PV) and anisidine value (AnV). Lipids were added to the diet at 10, 10, 8, and 7.5% for EXP 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively, to generate a range in dietary PV and AnV. Within each EXP, pig performance was affected by varying degrees depending on dietary PV and AnV concentrations. Combining the data from EXP 1, 2, 3, and 4 and regressing the relationship between dietary LOP (independent variables of PV and AnV) on relative pig performance (dependent variables of ADG, ADFI, and GF) using the control-fed pigs within each experiment as a baseline of 100% resulted in significant (P = 0.01) regression equations for relative ADG [ADG, % = 101.2 - [(0.321 × PV) + (1.019 × AnV)], R² = 0.81], ADFI [ADFI, % = 100.8 - [(0.320 × PV) + (0.629 × AnV)], R² = 0.68], and GF [GF, % = 101.3 - [(0.016 × PV) + (0.525 × AnV)], R² = 0.70], albeit PV was not a significant regression coefficient for PV in the GF model (P = 0.90). This data shows that the inclusion of a primary and a secondary LOP is effective in predicting the effect of dietary concentrations of PV and AnV on growth, feed intake and feed efficiency in growing pigs.