Some studies on glucose and fructose tolerance in pigs fed sucrose containing diets

Intravenous (iv) and oral tolerance tests to glucose land fructose (0.75 g/ kg body weight) were conducted in two experiments with castrated male pigs of 38.7 and 35.0 kg, respectively, adapted to diets where the energy source was either maize, refined sugar or sugar cane final molasses. In experimen t 1, tolerance time was significantly higher (P < 0.01) and clearance rate lower (P < 0.01) for final molasses when glucose was iv infused (142.0 min and 1.21 mg/dl/min, respectively) as compared to the other diets. A similar pattern was observed for fructose. In experiment 2, no return to fasting v alues was observed in plasma glucose of pigs fed final molasses whereas thi s same return took 150 min in pigs fed sugar. There were significant differ ences (P < 0.05) in glucosemia between both diets from 240 to 420 min postf eeding. Plasma fructose was considerably lower than plasma glucose. Data fr om either iv or oral tolerance tests to glucose and fructose appear to be i mpaired in pigs fed sugar cane final molasses.