Effect of phytase on phosphorous digestibility in pigs

It is known that the rate of availability (digestibility) of phosphorus in many components of the diet increases with enrichment of microbial phytase, so it is often used for pigs’ feeds. The reason for the increased availability of phosphorus is that the microbial phytase has the ability to release phosphorus contained in phytate (phytic phosphorus) in many feed ingredients. Without the addition of phytase to the diet, most of the phytic phosphorus is not digested by swine, instead, it is released with the feces.

Differences in the amount of phytic phosphorus

Phytates are not present in the feed of animal origin or in the inorganic sources of phosphorus (such as monocalcium or dicalcium phosphate), and the availability of total phosphorus in these components is quite high (often more than 80%).

As for the feed of plant origin (corn meal or soybean meal), where most of the phosphorus is bound in phytate complexes, the availability of phosphorus is quite low. However, the availability of phosphorus from plant feed can be improved by adding phytase of microbial origin.

In addition, there are a number of feeds of plant origin, where the level of availability of phytic phosphorus, is below the level of availability of phosphorus, in components such as corn meal or soybean meal. These feeds include part-products of agro-industries, such as grains, corn gluten feed, and fermented soybean meal.

In the above feed, the phosphorus bound in phytate could be determined in the process. In particular, the components have been subjected to fermentation or wet milling, contain a smaller amount of phosphorus contained in phytate than the original components. For this reason, the availability of phosphorus will be subjected to higher processing components.