The importance of water in pork production

Implications

• The unique chemical structure of water makes it well suited to fulfilling a diversity of essential roles in the body.
• Defining the water requirement of the pig is particularly challenging because intake can be affected by a number of metabolic, physiological, and behavioral factors and because ad libitum intake is not always a reflection of need.
• The quality of drinking water can be a serious problem in regions known to possess aquifers containing problematic ions such as sulfates, iron, manganese, or nitrates.
• Both the cost and the availability of water will almost certainly become a bigger issue in many regions of the world in the coming future.

Key words: pig, requirement, water quality

Published in Animal Frontiers 2:28-35. doi:10.2527/af.2012-0037.