Abstract
A nitrogen (N) balance trial was conducted to examine the effect of N deprivation on subsequent N retention, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and IGF-I levels and the ratio of IGF binding protein (IGFBP)-3 to IGFBP-l and -2. Pigs in treatment (T) 1 were given diet A (2.39% N) and those in T2 and T3 were given diet B (1.31% N) and excreta were collected (period 1 (P1)). Pigs in T1 continued to receive diet A while diets for T2 and T3 were changed to diets A and C (2.74% N), respectively. The excreta were collected for two more periods (P2 and P3). During P1, pigs in T2 and T3 retained 50% less N (p<0.001) than those in T1. However, pigs provided T2 (p<0.01) and T3 (p<0.05) retained more N than those assigned to T1 during P2. Pigs in T3 tended to retain more (p=0.10) N than those receiving T2 for the same period. The BUN values were lower (p<0.05) for pigs assigned to T2 and T3 than T1 during P1 and P2. Both IGF-I and IGFBP ratios of pigs assigned to T1 were higher (p<0.05) than those given T2 and T3 during P1 but no differences were found during P2 and P3.