Acosta, Jessica P., S. Maria S. Mendoza, John K. Htoo, Hans H. Stein. 2025. Nitrogen retention was not different in pigs fed diets supplemented with 65 parts of DL-Methionine or 100 parts of MHA-Ca. Journal of Animal Science, Volume 103, Issue Supplement_1, May 2025, Pages 99–100, doi.org/10.1093/jas/skaf102.107 Link to abstract.

Vitamin D regulates a wide spectrum of genes responsible for Ca and P homeostasis and cell differentiation. Cholecalciferol, commonly known as vitamin D₃, is a primary source of vitamin D₃ in diets for growing pigs; however, it needs to be hydroxylated twice to be active. The first hydroxylation occurs in the liver at the 25-position, resulting in 25-hydroxycholecalciferol [25(OH)D₃], whereas the second hydroxylation occurs in the kidneys at the 1-position, resulting in 1,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol [1,25(OH)₂D₃], which is the active form of vitamin D₃ in the body. Supplementation of 25(OH)D₃ to diets for sows in late gestation may increase the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) and retention of Ca and P, but there are no data to demonstrate this effect in growing pigs.

Cereal grains commonly used in diets for pigs have low digestibility of P because P is bound to phytate. Exogenous phytase increases the digestibility of both Ca and P in pigs by releasing the P from the phytate molecule within the gastrointestinal tract of pigs. However, there is limited information about the interaction between 25(OH)D₃ and supplemental phytase in diets fed to growing pigs. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that both 25(OH)D₃ and microbial phytase independently and in combination may increase standardized total tract digestibility (STTD) of Ca and P by growing pigs.

Acosta, Jessica P., Gemma Gonzalez Ortiz, Hans H. Stein. 2024. Effects of xylanase or a stimbiotic on growth performance and total tract digestibility of nutrients by pigs weaned from sows fed a lactation diet without or with xylanase. J. Anim. Sci Vol. 102, Suppl. S2. P 87 - 88. doi.org/10.1093/jas/skae102.099 Link to abstract.

Acosta, J. P., and H. H. Stein. 2024. What impact does a Stimbiotic have on digestibility when fed to weanling pigs. National Hog Farmer. On-line edition. May 30, 2024. Link to full text.

Acosta, J. P., and H. H. Stein. 2023. Does xylanase impact gestating, lactating sow digestibility? National Hog Farmer. On-line edition. Dec. 21, 2023.

Acosta Medellin, Jessica P., Charmaine D. Espinosa, Gemma Gonzalez Ortiz, Hans H. Stein. 2023. Concentration of Digestible Energy in Corn-Based Diets Fed to Gestating and Lactating Sows is Increased by Adding Xylanase to the Diets. J. Anim. Sci., Volume 101, Issue Supplement 2, Pages 35–36, doi.org/10.1093/jas/skad341.040. Link to abstract.

Exogenous enzymes may improve the fermentability of dietary fiber in swine diets by hydrolyzing non-starch polysaccharides into oligosaccharides and sugars. In particular, the enzyme xylanase hydrolyzes the β-(1-4) glycosidic bonds between the xylose units in the backbone of arabinoxylans in cereal grains and grain coproducts, resulting in the release of a combination of xylose, arabinose, and xylo-oligosaccharides from arabinoxylans that can be fermented by pigs. Previous data indicate that xylanase increased the degradation of dietary fiber and increased energy digestibility in diets for growing pigs; however, there are limited data for the impact of xylanase on energy and fiber digestibility in gestating and lactating sows. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that exogenous xylanase added to diets for gestating and lactating sows will increase the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of gross energy and total dietary fiber (TDF), and increase the concentrations of digestible energy (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) during two reproductive cycles.

Acosta, Jessica P., Charmaine D. Espinosa, Neil W. Jaworski, and Hans H. Stein. 2021. Corn protein has greater concentrations of digestible amino acids and energy than low-oil corn distillers dried grains with solubles when fed to pigs but does not affect the growth performance of weanling pigs. Journal of Animal Science, 2021, Vol. 99, No. 7, 1–12. doi:10.1093/jas/skab175.

A new source of corn protein (NexPro) that is produced from the ethanol industry has been developed by Flint Hills Resources (Wichita, KS). NexPro contains approximately 50% crude protein and the digestibility of amino acids was reported in our November, 2020, Newsletter. However, there is at this time no information about the concentration of digestible energy (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) in this new source of protein. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that concentrations of DE and ME in corn protein are greater than in 2 sources of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS; i.e., DDGS-1 and DDGS-2) when fed to growing pigs.