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Since 2023, amendments to the production specifications introduced by the consortia of Prosciutto di Parma and Prosciutto di San Daniele have come into force, increasing the maximum carcass weight to 180 kg (around 220 kg live weight), well above the traditionally permitted values. As a result, there is a need to assess voluntary feed intake and the energy and lysine requirements of heavy pigs intended for prosciutto production.
Objective: The study concerned the partitioning of energy and SID lysine in Goland C-21 × Camborough-43 pigs fed ad libitum (44–196 kg live weight).
Methods: A total of 96 Goland C-21 × Camborough-43 pigs were used, housed in 8 pens and allocated to 4 dietary treatments according to the lysine content of the feeds: low, medium-low, medium-high, and high. Within each treatment, the lysine content of the feeds was reduced over three successive age phases: 90–118, 119–146, and 147–251 days. Feed intake was measured daily using automatic feeding stations, and body weight and backfat thickness measurements were taken every 14 days. From these data, protein and lipid gains and the partitioning of energy and SID lysine were estimated.
Results: Within the weight range considered, and for the treatments providing non-limiting amounts of lysine, average protein gain was 148 g/day, with a peak of 183 g/day between 119 and 146 days of age, while lipid gain was 274 g/day. The metabolizable energy requirement for maintenance was found to be 0.935 MJ/kg0.60, in perfect agreement with the literature data for light pigs. The SID lysine requirement was found to be 10.4 g for every 100 g of protein gain.
Conclusion: This result is also consistent with literature data obtained from other genetic types and different live weight ranges.