Excessive dietary taurine supplementation reduces growth performance, liver and intestinal health of weaned pigs

Abstract This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary taurine (Tau) supplementation on growth performance, liver and intestinal health of weaned pigs. A total of 96 cross 28-d old barrows weaned at 21±2 d (initial average BW=7.39±0.40 kg) were allotted randomly on the basis of the initial body weights (BW) to dietary Tau supplementation of 0%, 0.3%, 1.5%, and 3% for 28 d. Each treatment had six replicate pens, and each pen had four pigs. Our results showed that gain/feed ratio ( G / F ) increased with the lower supplementation of Tau but decreased with the higher supplementation (quadratic, P P P P P P P