Do higher levels of available phosphorus and calcium at different protein diets influence the performance in growing pigs?

Abstract

One trial comprising 52 Danube White pigs in total spread over four groups (7 males and 6 females in each group) was carried out in Agricultural Institute, Shumen. The live weight of the animals at the start of the experiment (when pigs were 45-days old) was around 9.8 kg and at the end of the experiment (when pigs were 110 days old) 33-36 kg. The aim of this study was to test the effect of two levels of available P (0.35% and 0.80%) and Ca (0.71% and 1.22%) at two protein levels (18% and 16 %, respectively) in diets on the productivity of growing pigs. The following conclusions were made: increase in the level of available P from 0.34%- 0.35% to 0.80% and level of Ca from 0.71% to 1.22% in compound feeds for pigs (having 9.7-9.9 kg to 33.0-36.0 kg LW) LW had no effect on feed intake, average daily gain (ADG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Higher growing rate and lower FCR had been established in pigs with higher protein feed intake (18% vs. 16% at P<0.05). In this experiment the effect of protein was highly significant and had higher impact on pig’s growing rate than the levels of P and Ca (at equal Ca/P ratio).