Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Tier 4 — Narrative / commentaryPeer-reviewed

Productive, Physiological, and Environmental Implications of Reducing Crude Protein Content in Swine Diets: A Review.

de Almeida AM, Latorre MA, Alvarez-Rodriguez J.

Animals (Basel) · 2024

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Summary

This narrative review examines the consequences of lowering crude protein content in swine diets across productive, physiological, and environmental domains. The authors synthesise evidence on how protein reduction strategies affect growth rates, nutrient utilisation, and environmental outputs including nitrogen excretion and gaseous emissions. The review likely concludes that moderate protein reduction, when balanced with amino acid supplementation, can improve environmental sustainability whilst maintaining production performance.

UK applicability

The findings are relevant to UK pig producers seeking to reduce feed costs and environmental impact whilst meeting nutrient requirements. UK legislation on ammonia emissions and nutrient management on farms makes evidence on protein reduction strategies particularly applicable to regulatory compliance.

Key measures

Growth performance, feed conversion efficiency, nitrogen balance, ammonia and methane emissions, carcass composition, immune function, gut health indicators

Outcomes reported

The review synthesises evidence on the productive, physiological, and environmental impacts of reducing dietary crude protein in swine production systems. It likely examines trade-offs between animal performance, health outcomes, nutrient excretion, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Theme
Nutrition & health
Subject
Livestock nutrition and farm environmental performance
Study type
Narrative Review
Study design
Narrative review
Source type
Peer-reviewed study
Status
Published
Geography
International
System type
Mixed livestock
DOI
10.3390/ani14213081
Catalogue ID
NRmo9zxr64-07r

Topic tags

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