Excess Supplemental Choline for Swine

Abstract

Seven experiments were conducted with 280 crossbred pigs to investigate the effect of excess choline on rate and efficiency of gain of weanling, growing and finishing swine Choline additions were made to a conventional corn-soybean meal diet. Daily gain of weanling pigs was reduced slightly by 6,000 ppm excess choline compared with 0, 500, 1,000, 2,000 or 4,000 ppm excess choline. Excess supplemental choline (2,000 ppm) fed throughout the weanling, growing and finishing (121 to 126 d) phases of growth reduced (P less than .08) daily gain but it did not affect (P greater than .10) feed utilization. The 2,000-ppm choline addition, however, did not affect (P less than .10) pig gain when fed only during the growing and finishing stages of growth (68 to 86 d). Excess choline should be avoided in swine diets if maximum rate of gain is to be achieved.