Farms.com Home   News

New Research On Calcium Provision In Growing Pigs

By Hans Stein

Research being carried out at the University of Illinois and funded by AB Vista will significantly improve the accuracy of calcium (Ca) provision in growing pigs by generating much-needed standardised or true total tract digestibility (STTD or TTTD) values for Ca across a range of common feed ingredients.

"The aim is to achieve the same level of precision for Ca when formulating diets as is possible for phosphorus (P)," states Dr Carrie Walk, AB Vista's Senior Research Manager. "We formulate using digestibility values for the majority of the important – and expensive – nutrients in the diet, such as P and amino acids, but that data is currently not available for Ca in growing pigs."

The study will determine digestibility values both with and without the addition of a phytase, since any reduction in phytate-Ca binding through phytase use will increase Ca availability, leading to potential oversupply. "Although considered a relatively inexpensive nutrient, the implications of Ca oversupply are significant," Dr Walk adds. "Even marginally high levels of dietary Ca have been shown to increase gastric pH and reduce the digestibility of two of the most expensive nutrients, protein and P."

The initial phase of the project, which is being led by the University's Professor Hans Stein, used canola meal as the primary source of Ca. The trials generated Ca endogenous loss values of 0.160 g/kg dry matter intake (DMI) and 0.189 g/kg DMI for untreated and phytase-treated diets, respectively, and corresponding average Ca TTTD values for canola meal of 46.6% and 70.3%.

"Unless these endogenous losses are taken into account by using TTTD values during diet formulation, Ca digestibility will be underestimated and subsequently oversupplied," states Professor Stein. "The research has also demonstrated that TTTD values for Ca are not affected by the Ca level in the diet, indicating that the resulting figures would be additive in diet formulation calculations. The long term goal is to establish the requirement for digestible Ca for all groups of pigs," explains Caroline Gonzalez-Vega, a PhD candidate in Dr Stein's laboratory who has conducted much of the work on Ca digestibility. "By doing so, we will be able to formulate diets in the future based on the requirement for both digestible phosphorus and digestible calcium."

The next phase of the research is to establish Ca TTTD values for a wide range of commonly used plant- and animal-based feed ingredients.

Source: ANSCI


Trending Video

Ontario Swine Research Centre Grand Opening | Ontario Pork News

Video: Ontario Swine Research Centre Grand Opening | Ontario Pork News

After six years of intense planning, collaboration, consulting and construction, the new Ontario Swine Research Centre is officially open. On August 24, 2023, pork producers and their children joined University of Guelph researchers and Government officials for a tour of the facility. The grand opening saw more than 800 guests attend. This long-awaited unveiling of the state-of-the-art facility was a proud moment for Ontario’s pork industry.

The 68,000 square foot facility is equipped with the latest in agriculture technology. This includes advanced loose sow housing and automatic feeding systems. The feeding system is connected to radio frequency identification (RFID) ear tags, so researchers will be able to monitor and control the precise amount and type of blended feed mixture that each pig is eating. This valuable nutrition research data will benefit all producers.

The new facility is the result of a collaborative investment from the Government of Ontario, the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario (ARIO) the Ontario’s pork industry, and the University of Guelph.