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The effect of phosphorus concentration and the use of phytase enzyme in pig diets on growth performance and bone characteristics of finishing pigs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

R.N. Weatherup ,
V.E. Beattie ,
K.J. McCracken ,
S.G. McIlroy  and
R.W. Henry
R.N. Weatherup
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co Down BT26 6DR, Northern Ireland
V.E. Beattie
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co Down BT26 6DR, Northern Ireland
K.J. McCracken
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland, Newforge Lane, Belfast BT9 5PX, Northern Ireland
S.G. McIlroy
Affiliation:
John Thompson and Sons Ltd, 35-39 York Road, Belfast BT15 3GW, Northern Ireland
R.W. Henry
Affiliation:
Devenish Nutrition Ltd, 96 Duncrue Street, Belfast BT3 9AR, Northern Ireland
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Extract

Recommended P concentrations in pig diets have been reduced recently (NRC, 1998) but few studies have evaluated these throughout both the growing and finishing stages (Harper et al., 1997). These new recommended P concentrations were based on feed intakes of 1.8 and 2.8 kg/d for growers and finishers respectively which are much higher than the feed intakes of 1.4 and 2.1 kg/d currently achieved in normal UK commercial practice. This suggests that dietary P concentrations should be increased from NRC (1998) estimates to approximately 6 g/kg to ensure adequate growth performance and structural soundness of UK pigs. Phytase enzyme has also been shown to improve the bioavailability of dietary P (Harper et al., 1997). This experiment was designed to examine the effects of grower/finisher diet P concentration and presence of phytase on growth performance and finisher bone thickness and strength.

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Programme
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 1999 , 1999 , pp. 168
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 1999

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References

Harper, A.F., Kornegay, E.T. and Schell, T.C. (1997). Phytase supplementation of low-phosphorus growing-finishing pig diets improves performance, phosphorus digestibility, and bone mineralization and reduces phosphorus excretion. Journal of Animal Science, 75: 3174–3186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kornegay, E.T. and Qian, H. (1996). Replacement of inorganic phosphorus by microbial phytase for young pigs fed on a maize-soyabean-meal diet. British Journal of Nutrition, 76: 563–578.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
NRC (1998). Nutrient requirements of swine. 10th rev. ed. National Academy Press, Washington D.C. 189pp.Google Scholar