EFFECT OF MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE ON CREEP RATION CONSUMPTION OF SUCKLING PIGS 1/
Research Progress Report 73
September 1963 Final
R. A. Pickett, W. M. Beeson and H. W. Jones, Animal Sciences Department
Summary
Suckling pigs showed a marked preference for creep rations containing 0.1,
0.2 or 0.3 percent monosodium glutamate (MSG) when given a choice of basal ration (no MSG) or feed containing MSG. This preference increased with increasing MSG levels and consumption of the MSG rations was 64, 73, and 79 percent of the total feed consumption, respectively for the three levels tested.
Pigs having access to only one ration made similar gains whether the feed contained 0, 0.1, 0.2 or 0.3 percent MSG. The addition of 0.1 percent or 0.3 percent MSG to the creep ration appeared to increase feed consumption after the pigs were 4 weeks old but this difference was not significant.
Creep Feeding
Early feed consumption by the young pigs should take advantage of his ability to make rapid and efficient gains. One possible method of encouraging early consumption of feed by the pig is to make the feed more palatable. In two previous experiments (RPR 68) suckling pigs showed a definite preference for prestarter and starter rations containing mono sodium glutamate (MSG) when given a choice of feeds containing 0 or 0.1 percent, 0.3 percent or 0.5 percent MSG.
Two additional experiments are reported in this paper. They were designed to further investigate the pigs preference for feed containing MSG and to study the effect of MSG on creep feed consumption when no choice is presented to the pig.
Experimental Procedure
Experiment I--Forty-one sows and their litters were allotted to four treatment groups according to farrowing date. Each treatment group was made up of four pens of 2 or 3 sows and litters each. This experiment was conducted during the time the pigs were from one to six weeks of age.
The pigs had access to the basal ration (Table 1) as well as one other feed. Experimental treatments were:
1-	-Basal ration vs. Basal ration
2-	-Basal vs. Basal plus 0.1% MSG
3-	-Basal vs. Basal plus 0.2% MSG
4-	-Basal vs. Basal plus 0.3% MSG
Feeder positions were changed three times per week and the rations were changed within the feeders at weekly intervals. The number of feeders per pen was doubled when the pigs reached four weeks of age to insure adequate feeder space for each ration.
Experiment II--Forty sows and litters were allotted to four treatment groups in this study which was conducted in the same manner as experiment I. The major difference in this experiment was that the pigs had access to only one type of feed in each of the four treatment groups.
Experimental treatments were:
1-	-Basal ration
2-	-Basal ration plus 0.1% MSG
3-	-Basal ration plus 0.2% MSG
4-	-Basal ration plus 0.3% MSG
Results
Preference Study--There was little difference in consumption from the feeders in treatment 1 which both contained the basal
1/ This research was supported in part by a grant-in-aid from Commercial Solvents Corporation, Terre Haute, Indiana. The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of G. R. Reed in collecting the data presented in this paper.
PURDUE UNIVERSITY • Agricultural Experiment Station • Lafayette, Indiana