Effect of phytase supplementation on growing pigs performance

Dietary concentrations of phytate are crucial for its anti-nutritive properties and its negative impact on P availability. The increase of dietary phytate level is shown to increase endogenous losses of amino acids and minerals in pigs. The partial availability of the P component of phytate to simple-stomached species attains importance as the world's rock phosphate reserves are not renewable, which could lead to a P supply crisis in the future. Supplementing phytase is becoming increasingly common as a method to improve the availability of P in plant ingredients containing high levels of phytate P. Fourty-eight pigs (Swedish Landrace boars × Dutch landrace sows) weaned at day 35 with an initial BW of 8.72±0.28 kg were used for a 40-day weaner performance study. The study was structured as a complete randomized design to evaluate the response of weaner pigs to four concentrations of microbial phytase produced by Aspergillus niger: (T1) basal diet; (T2) basal diet + 1000 FTU/kg; (T3) diet with decreased dicalcium phosphate + 1000 FTU/kg; and (T4) diet with no dicalcium phosphate + 1000 FTU/kg. Control group of piglets (T1) has achieved standard body mass while addition of phytase in meal increased body mass by 6.59% in T2 and 7.52% in T3. Phytase supplementation prevented decreased body weight gain diets where available phosphorous level was reduced by 50. The amount of consumed feed per day was not significantly different. Feed efficiency of T2 and T3 groups was by 3.23% better and of T4 for 11.29% lower compared to the control group of piglets (T1). Lower production results achieved by the use of low phosphorous diets can be avoided to a certain level by the use of microbial phytase. The use of phytase in pig diet significantly improved phosphorous availability, as well as of other mineral substances from the phytate complex. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. III46002]