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Research on AA requirements and their profile is still running and the recommendations are being updated frequently. The dietary crude protein level could be reduced with no marked detrimental effects on animal performance as far as the supply and the balance of indispensable AA meet the animal requirements. A dose-response experiment was conducted to estimate the standardized ileal digestible (SID) isoleucine (Ile) to lysine (Lys) ratio required for the best performance of animals when fed cereal-based diets without blood products. In this study, 96 pigs (initial BW 8 kg) were allotted to 1 of 6 dietary treatments with 16 pigs per treatment. Graded levels of crystalline Ile were added to the basal diet to produce diets providing 0.42, 0.46, 0.50, 0.58, and 0.62 SID Ile:Lys. Average daily feed intake (ADFI), average daily gain (ADG), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were determined during a period of 14 days. Blood and urine samples were taken at the end of each week. There was a quadratic increase in ADFI (P<0.001) and ADG (P<0.007) by increasing level of Ile:Lys in the diet. The ADG tended to increase linearly (P<0.08) as well. The maximum ADFI and ADG were obtained in pigs fed the 0.50 SID Ile:Lys diet. The FCR showed neither linear nor quadratic response to increasing concentration of Ile:Lys in the diet, but numerically the 0.58 and 0.62 Ile:Lys resulted in the lowest FCR. Increasing the dietary SID Ile:Lys resulted in a linear increase in plasma Ile concentration (P<0.001) and a quadratic decrease in plasma leucine concentration (P<0.03). There was also a linear decrease in plasma glycine (P<0.001) and serine (P<0.004) concentrations when increasing dietary Ile:Lys. Neither plasma urea nor urinary urea were affected by feeding the SID Ile:Lys levels. The minimum SID Ile:Lys levels required to maximize ADFI and ADG were 0.51 and 0.52 SID Ile:Lys using a curvilinear plateau model and 0.53 and 0.53 SID Ile:Lys using a quadratic regression model. The estimated requirement using FCR as a response variable was 0.48 SID Ile:Lys by a broken-line model. In conclusion, the optimum SID Ile:Lys in the present experiment was 0.52 in order to maximize ADFI and ADG and 0.48 in order to minimize FCR for 8–15 kg pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]