The present study investigated the effects of dietary supplementation of purified amino acid (PAA) isolated and purified from animal slaughter house blood on growth performance and immune response of weanling piglets. A total of fifteen, 28 days old, weaned pigs were randomly distributed into three treatment groups, 5 pens per treatment (one head per pen). Each experimental diet was provided to five piglets per group (T0, 0% PAA; T1, 0.1% PAA; T2, 0.5% PAA). The feed consumption was calculated daily and body weight on a weekly basis. The blood samples were analyzed for plasma concentration of biochemical parameters and cytokines using ELISA Kit assay. Pigs fed with the 0.5% PAA have greater average daily weight gain (ADG) and feed efficiency (FE) as compared to those of T0 and T1. However, ADG and FE of T0 and T1 have no remarkable differences. The plasma cytokine levels were lower in T2 as compared to T0 and T1. The blood parameters like total bilirubin, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), glutamate oxalate transaminase (GOT) and glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT) were within the normal range in all the treatment groups. The study indicated that supplementation of 0.5% PAA have positive effect on the growth performance of the weanling pigs. Moreover, supplementation of the amino acid isolated and purified from animal slaughter house blood has no adverse effect on palatability of the feed and health of the animals.

In order to provide information of genetic variants for Haptoglobin (Hp) gene, which may be related to weight traits in pig, a total of 235 animals from National Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) were screened with 3 primers. The primer sequences were selected using the porcine cDNA sequences based on NM_214000, and the exon boundaries were estimated. Genetic variants were observed using direct sequencing analysis, and there were 9 SNPs detected at nucleotide positions 503 (A/G), 509 (A/G), 709 (C/T), 734 (C/A), 742 (G/A), 769 (A/G), 840 (C/T), 876 (C/T) and 882 (C/A). All the SNPs were located in coding regions, and mutations caused amino acid changes at nucleotide positions 503, 509, 734, 742 and 769. Allele frequencies of SNPs were estimated for all segments. The SNPs at nucleotide position 509 (p<0.0001) and 734 (p<0.05) were significantly associated with average daily gain, but no significance was observed with other SNPs. From the results, the identified SNPs may be a useful candidate marker for the porcine weight gain traits.