Changes in plasma amino acid profiles, growth performance and intestinal antioxidant capacity of piglets following increased consumption of methionine as its hydroxy analogue

The aim of the present study was to determine whether early weaning-induced growth retardation could be attenuated by increased consumption of methionine as dl -methionine (DLM) or dl -2-hydroxy-4-methylthiobutyrate (HMTBA) in both lactating sows and weaned piglets. Therefore, diets containing DLM and HMTBA at 25 % of the total sulphur-containing amino acids (AA) present in the control (CON) diet were fed to lactating sows and weaned piglets and their responses were evaluated. Compared with the CON diet-fed sows, the HMTBA diet-fed sows exhibited a tendency ( P P P P P P P P P P P P P P