INCLUSION OF WHEAT BRAN IN BARLEY-SOYBEAN MEAL DIETS WITH DIFFERENT PHOSPHORUS LEVELS FOR GROWING-FINISHING PIGS .2. PERFORMANCE AND BONE MINERALIZATION IN GROWING-FINISHING PIGS
E. Helander et K. Partanen, INCLUSION OF WHEAT BRAN IN BARLEY-SOYBEAN MEAL DIETS WITH DIFFERENT PHOSPHORUS LEVELS FOR GROWING-FINISHING PIGS .2. PERFORMANCE AND BONE MINERALIZATION IN GROWING-FINISHING PIGS, Agricultural science in Finland, 3(1), 1994, pp. 41-48
The experiment was conducted to study whether wheat bran (WB) phytase
could improve the availability of intrinsic phosphorus (P) in commerci
al barley-soybean meal diets enough to replace the added inorganic P p
artly or completely in the diets of growing-finishing pigs (30-100 kg)
. Performance as well as certain chemical and physical parameters of t
he tibia and fibula bones were used as criteria for the WB phytase eff
ect. The experiment was conducted using a 2x3 factorial arrangement. T
he factors were wheat bran (WB) level - either 0 (WB-) or 100 g/kg (WB
+), and phosphorus level - high (HP), medium (MP) and low (LP) corresp
onding to 4.33 g, 2.99 g and 1.64 g digestible P per a feed unit (FU =
0.7 kg starch equivalent), respectively. The measured digestible P co
ntents of the diets were 4.2,4.2, 2.7, 2.5, 1.4 and 1.8 g/kg DM, respe
ctively. A content of 2.5-2.7 g of digestible P/kg DM in the diet prov
ed to be sufficient for the whole growing period, but the lowest phosp
horus levels led to an impaired growth rate, feed consumption and feed
conversion ratio. However, after reaching 60 kg live weight, the pigs
on LPWB- and LPWB+ diets were able to grow and utilize feed as effect
ively as the other pigs. WB at a level of 100 g/kg had no significant
effect on the performance, feed conversion ratio or carcass quality cr
iteria of the pigs on any diet. WB phytase showed a positive effect on
bone breaking strength on the LP diet.