Concentrations of several trace elements in sow's milk were measured from parturition to weaning. In addition, correlations between concentrations in the colostrum and those in the sow's whole blood were also examined for each element. Results showed that the mean concentrations in the colostrum were 6.77ng V/ml, 5.09g Fe/ml, 1.58g Cu/ml and 11.6g Zn/ml, respectively. As for changes in the concentrations of several trace elements in sow's milk from parturition to weaning, V and Fe values tended to increase, while Zn and Cu values tended to decrease. Furthermore, a significantly high correlation was recognized between the concentrations in the colostrum and that of whole blood.

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Food co-products are currently recognized as important feed resources and thus a number of laboratories are focusing on research to improve quality of pork with appropriate utilization of food co-products. Although it is already well recognized that feeding breadcrumbs, a major food co-product, to finishing pigs enhances intramuscular fat (IMF) content in longissimus dorsi (l. dorsi) muscle, the underlying mechanisms is still unknown. As breadcrumbs mainly consist of wheat flour, their amino acid profile should be similar to that of wheat grain. Thus, diet for pigs including breadcrumbs may not meet requirement of certain essential amino acids. We hypothesize that the reason of enhancement in IMF content in l. dorsi muscle due to breadcrumbs feeding is attributed to shortage of certain amino acids in the diets including breadcrumbs. From this background, we decided to conduct an investigation to elucidate whether amino acid profile of a diet including breadcrumbs plays a role in regulating IMF content in l. dorsi muscle in finishing pigs.
Diets prepared were as follows ; a control diet, a diet including breadcrumbs (BS diet), and a diet including breadcrumbs supplemented with amino acids (lysine, methionine, threonine, and tryptophan) to meet their requirements (BS+AA diet). The control diet was mainly consisted of maize and soy bean meal. We used in total twenty four pure Landrace breeds pigs. Four barrows and four gilts were assigned to one of the three diets. The pigs were subjected to each diet when their live body weight reached to 40 kg, and they were allowed free access to the diets and water until their body weight reached to 110 kg. At the end of the trial, carcass traits were measured and IMF contents in l. dorsi muscle were determined.
Although feeding the BS diet did not affect back fat depth, IMF contents in l. dorsi of pigs fed on the BS diet were significantly higher than those of the other two groups (2.29% for the control group, 1.98% for the BS+AA group, and 3.52% for the BS group, respectively ; P<0.05). Daily body weigh gain, feed intake, feed conversion efficiency, back fat depth, and fat depth at the P2 site of pigs fed on the BS+AA diet were not different from those of the pigs fed on the control diet.
These results suggest that the well recognized effect of breadcrumbs feeding on IMF content in l. dorsi muscle can be attributed to shortage of certain essential amino acids in diets including breadcrumbs.

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A feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of feeding fermented milk on the growth performance of weaning piglets. Twelve piglets (LWD 6, LW 6) weaned at 28 d of age were used in this study ; six piglets were fed a diet with fermented milk (FM group) while the rests were fed a diet with acidified milk (AM group). The diet offered to the FM group consisted of the commercial mash diet and fermented milk in the ratio of 1 : 5 (wt : wt). The diet offered to the AM group was similar, but fermented milk was replaced with acidified milk. The feeding experiment continued for 3 weeks. Although the dry matter intake of the FM group was significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of the AM group, the average daily gain of the two groups was similar. Consequently, the feed efficiency of the FM group was tended to be lower (P<0.10) than that of the AM group. Analyzed contents of amino acids and gross energy were not different between the fermented milk and the acidified milk. In conclusion, feeding fermented milk enhances feed intake in weaning piglets, whereas it does not affect body weight gain.

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