The efficacy of Aspergillus niger phytase in rendering phytate phosphorus available for absorption in pigs is influenced by pig physiological status.

Abstract

We performed an experiment with 112 piglets, 32 growing-finishing pigs, and 12 sows during pregnancy and lactation to test the hypotheses that apparent total tract digestibilities of P and Ca as well as the efficacy of Aspergillus niger phytase in rendering phytate P available in pigs depend on pig physiological status. All pigs were fed diets with identical feedstuff composition either without or with added microbial phytase (Natuphos, 500 FTU/kg diet). The diets contained 6.2 g Ca, 4.8 g total P, and 3.7 g phytate P per kilogram, and intrinsic phytase activity of 120 FTU/kg. The digestibility of P increased by 8.3 percentage units when BW of pigs increased from 30 to 60 kg and then remained stable until 100 kg. Pregnant sows had a lower efficiency of P absorption than piglets and growing-finishing pigs. During lactation, the efficiency of P absorption was 3.4 percentage units higher than during pregnancy but was still 6.6 percentage units lower than for growing-finishing pigs. The efficacy of the phytase in generating digestible P decreased in the order or lactating sows, growing-finishing pigs, sows at the end of pregnancy, piglets, and sows at midpregnancy; the average amounts of generated digestible P were 1.03, .83, .74, .66, and .32 g/kg diet, respectively. The addition of phytase to the diet raised apparent Ca digestibility in the piglets and growing-finishing pigs (by 4.6 and 4.0 percentage units, respectively) but not in the sows. We conclude that in the formulation of swine diets the amount of phytase to be added should be tailored to the target category.

Effects of Aspergillus fumigatus phytase on phosphorus digestibility, phosphorus excretion, bone strength and performance in pigs

“…For [37]. This improvement could be related to a lower P need combined with better digestive utilization of phytic-P observed in finishing pigs [19,20,32,37]. In the present study the effects of the phytase preparation on phosphataemia of growing-fattening pigs were more pronounced during the first I9 days than later in the observation period.…”

Effect of microbial phytase and diet fermentation on ileal and total tract digestibility of nutrients and energy in growing pigs

“…The results of experiments studying the effect of phytase on Ca digestibility in pigs are controversial. Some reports showed no effect (Yi et al, 1996;Harper et al, 1997;Sands et al, 2001) while others showed that phytase increased both ileal (Traylor et al, 2001) and total tract (Kemme et al, 1997) Ca digestibility. There are even studies demonstrating a greater effect of added phytase on Ca digestibility than on P digestibility (Johnston et al, 2004).…”

“…Therefore, lowering the pH of gastrointestinal digesta might increase the efficacy of supplemental phytase. Indeed, there are several experiments demonstrating a synergistic effect of diet acidification and phytase supplementation on P availability in pigs (Jongbloed et al, 1996;Kemme et al, 1997;Li et al, 1998) even though it is unclear whether this effect is due to the lower pH or the presence of the acid, mostly citric acid, itself (Han et al, 1998;Boling et al, 2000). Moreover, organic acids are metabolized in the body and intestinal digesta have a relatively strong buffering capacity, which suggests that a significant effect of diet acidification on the gastrointestinal tract pH can hardly be expected.…”

The influence of microbial phytase supplementation to diets with high or low native phytase activity on sow reproductive traits and composition of colostrum and milk

“…The results of some experiments have shown, however, analogically with trials on growing pigs, a beneficial effect of this enzyme on the digestibility of some nutrients and on the performance of these animals (Kemme et al, 1997;Jongbloed et al, 2004). It should be stressed that in almost all of the experiments on sows, the effect of phytase additive was examined when typical maize-soyabean meal diets, poor in intrinsic phytase, were fed (Hill et al, 2008).…”