Effects of dietary vitamin A supplementation or restriction and its timing on retinol and α-tocopherol accumulation and gene expression in heavy pigs
Vitamin supplementation is a widely extended practice in swine nutrition. Certain vitamins such as vitamins A and E are related to meat quality and have been reported as antagonists. Thus, their tissue levels are of interest for swine producers and consumers. This experiment was undertaken to study the effect of dietary vitamin A supplementation or withdrawal duration and timing on the evolution of vitamin A deposition in tissues, α-tocopherol accumulation and gene expression in heavy pigs. Eighty weaned Iberian piglets (16.3 ± 2.5 kg) were either fed a vitamin A-enriched diet (10,000 IU vitamin A/kg) (CONTROL) or given a diet without added vitamin A applied from the beginning of the trial at 16.3 kg (early restriction group, ER) or from an average weight of 35.8 kg (late restriction group, LR). Pigs fed ER and LR had lower ADG and worse feed efficiency than those from the CONTROL group at 101.4 kg (P=0.001 and P=0.034, respectively). However, final weight, average daily gain, average
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