Superdose

Effects of increasing phytase dose on total tract digestibility of minerals and energy in pigs

In most plant feed ingredients, the majority of P is bound to phytate, which reduces digestibility of P in pigs, and therefore, the concentration of digestible P in these ingredients is relatively low. Phytate is negatively charged in the intestinal tract and can bind both endogenous and dietary nutrients, which results in precipitation of non-digestible nutrient-phytate complexes. Therefore, it is possible that the use of exogenous phytase can also increase the digestibility of other nutrients than P. As an example, addition of exogenous phytase to diets also releases Ca from phytate, and thus, increases the digestibility of Ca. However, it has not been conclusively demonstrated that phytase also increases the digestibility of energy-generating nutrients and other minerals in diets fed to pigs and inconsistent results among experiments have been reported. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that increasing phytase dose increases the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of minerals and gross energy (GE) in corn and soybean meal-based diets fed to growing pigs.

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