This paper reviews the main principles and characterizes the evolution of modeling applied to the swine digestive and metabolic processes. Such modeling is largely based on two mathematical principles: linearity and non-linearity, which were represented essentially by action mass and Michaelis-Menten laws. The digestive and metabolic models were classified in explanatory, temporal and parametric. Explanatory ones describe the knowledge integration, and could be empirical or mechanistic. Temporal ones define the integration time, and could be static or dynamics. Parametric ones associate temporal and explanatory forms, and could be deterministic or stochastics. To date, growth models were more studied than digestive models. The anabolism, catabolism, and nutrient utilization were better integrated in protein tissues. This review shows that current models are dynamic, deterministic and empirical, representing partially the swine digestive and metabolic process. The new models should integrate the parametric stochastic forms, which would bring them closer to the reality of cellular kinetics, considering nutrients from ingestion to utilization at the molecular level.
pig; growth; modeling; nutrition
