Effect of body weight on phosphorus digestibility and efficacy of a microbial phytase in young pigs.

The effect of body weight on P digestibility and on efficacy of supplemental Aspergillus niger phytase was studied in two experiments with young growing pigs. Excreta were collected quantitatively. All diets contained 2.0 g digestible P per kg dry matter at a maximum and renal P excretion never exceeded 15 mg/d. When dietary P mainly originated from monocalcium-phosphate, both P digestibility and Ca net absorption linearly increased by 3.6 and 5.6 percentage units, respectively, when BW increased from 15 to 35 kg. With a similar range in BW, P digestibility and Ca net absorption were unaffected by BW when P mainly originated from maize, barley and soybean meal. In both types of diet, crude protein digestibility increased with increasing body weight, whereas organic matter digestibility was effected by BW only in the diet containing maize, barley and soybean meal. Phytase (400 U/kg) almost doubled P digestibility when supplemented to a diet with P mainly originating from maize, soybean meal and barley. This effect of phytase supplementation was equal in pigs at 15.7 kg BW (33 vs. 55%) and at 39.1 kg BW (32 vs. 56%). Digestibility of any organic fraction was unaffected by supplemental phytase. With regard to on-farm conditions, it appears eligible from this results to apply digestibility coefficients for P determined in growing-finishing pigs for piglets as well.