Abstract: Objective: To investigate the positive effect of N-carbamyl-L-glutamic acid (NCG) and arginine in diet on the growth performance of weaning mice. Methods: First, 0.025%, 0.05% and 0.1% NCG was added in the diet of weaning mice to explore the effect of NCG on the growth performance of weaning mice. Moreover, the diet containing 0.05% NCG combined with arginine at the concentrations of 0.025%, 0.05% and 0.1% was also used to explore the growth performance of weaning mice. Results: The addition of 0.1% NCG in the diet of weaning mice could increased the average daily weight gain by 12.40% and reduce the feed/gain ratio by 14.65% when compared with the control group. Simultaneous additions of 0.05% NCG and 0.025% arginine could result in a 10.53% increase of average daily weight gain when compared with the control group. Conclusion: The addition of 0.1% NCG in diet can significantly improve the growth performance of weaning mice. Simultaneous additions of 0.05% NCG and 0.025% arginine can also significantly improve the growth performance of weaning mice, with the same efficiency as that of 0.1% NCG alone.

Key words: N-carbamyl-L-glutamic acid, arginine, growth performance, weaning mice, combinatorial effect