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Minerals in swine nutrition
Minerals constitute a small percentage of swine diets, but their importance cannot be over-emphasized. Functions of minerals are extremely diverse, serving a variety of structural, metabolic, and regulatory functions in all body components. The mineral nutrition of pigs must be precise because adding excess minerals to the diet can be costly and cause toxicity while not providing enough minerals can result in deficiency and reduce productivity.
Minerals are classified into macrominerals and microminerals according to the amount required in the diet. Macrominerals or major minerals need to be supplied in larger amounts in swine diets, as is the case of calcium, phosphorus, sodium, chlorine, magnesium, and potassium. Microminerals or trace minerals need to be supplied in smaller amounts in swine diets, as is the case of zinc, copper, iron, manganese, iodine, and selenium. Chromium is also sometimes added to sow and finisher diets to improve performance.
Grains and oilseeds commonly used in swine diets are sources of macrominerals and trace minerals. However, the intrinsic minerals are often found at low concentration and availability in feedstuffs is questionable. Consequently, it is essential to balance the diets using supplemental mineral sources to meet the requirements.
Introduction Increasing the efficiency of protein utilization is an important issue in livestock for production. Apart from the cost of protein (the input side), the issue is also driven to reduce nitrogen excretion (the output side) to limit the environmental impact of livestock production. The quantitatively most important role of dietary protein is to provide the amino acids for animal-derived products, such as meat, milk, and eggs. The similarities in the amino acids composition...
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Introduction “Pig producers will need to cope with higher feed costs, more pressure from legislation and, at the same time, more expectations from consumers.” I think most people would agree that this would characterize very well the challenges facing the pork industry today. This statement, however, is from an article by Matheiu Cortyl written in 2014 for WattPoultry magazine. This seems to be a very accurate prediction, but I think it more reflects the challenges the...
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May 5, 2026
Canada - Alberta - Edmonton
Introduction As the world population continues to grow, along with the consumption of animal-sourced foods, animal production in the world is expected to grow in the decades ahead. The OECD and FAO estimated that, due to population growth and the ongoing transition towards a higher intake of animal products, global livestock production will grow by 14% from 2020 to 2029 (OECD/FAO, 2022; Ritchie and Roser, 2019). However, the statistic differs between continents and regions of the...
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Marcio Ceccantini, Global Technical Manager for Vitamins at Adisseo, discusses the evolving role of vitamins in modern animal production and introduces the Microvit® Nutrition Guide 2026, featuring updated recommendations for 18 species and 36 production phases to support performance and nutritional precision worldwide. ...
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Introduction: Piglets are born with limited iron reserve and they need supplementation by iron in order to synthetize haemoglobin required for the prevention of anaemia and for proper immune functions. In majority of studies mainly haemoglobin and haematological profile is measured, parameters describing body iron status are missing. The aim of the study is to compare the effectiveness of three iron-containing products (two iron-dextrans and a gleptoferron) on serum biochemistry...
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Introduction Animal husbandry, the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock, is a major food-producing industry worldwide. The increasing global demand for animal protein results in rapidly growing animal production as well as the growth of animal feed and the feed additive market. The feed additives have played a significant role in the sustainability of the livestock industry. There are four major drivers for the growth of the animal feed additive market including:...
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Introduction: The aim of this study was to compare the effect of post-weaning treatment of piglets with zink oxide (ZnO) and colistin on health, production and Escherichia coli shedding. Materials and Methods: During two successive weaning rounds, a randomized control study was performed on three commercial pig herds. In each herd, four groups of weaners were created that either received colistin in the feed (CF) (Promycine® 400 IU/mg, premix,...
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Introduction: Coccidiosis occurs worldwide in association with intensive pig husbandry. In the intensive pig production piglets are supplemented with Iron to prevent iron deficiency anaemia. Traditional prevention of coccidiosis and iron deficiency anaemia has involved two separate intervention. Toltrazuril is well established product given orally to piglets in prepatent period to control coccidiosis and iron is supplemented traditionally by intramuscular route to young...
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Updated Vitamin Requirements Across Species: Microvit® Nutrition Guide
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Impact of Trace Mineral Status on Biological Function: The nutritional status of animals is an indicator of their productivity and reproductive capabilities. In tropical countries like India, mineral imbalances or deficiencies are prevalent . (Mc Dowell et a l., 1993) . Livestock in India typically rely on grazing and receive minimal or no mineral supplementation, apart from common salt. (Garg et al ., 2005) . Additionally, the mineral content of locally...
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Introduction: Newborn piglets are at risk for developing iron deficiency because they are born with limited iron stores and sow milk provides them with only ±1 mg of iron per day. Iron deficiency leads to anemia characterized by a low concentration of iron-containing hemoglobulin (Hb) in red blood cells. Therefore, iron administration to piglets within the first week of life is common practice in pig farms. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of iron...
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The True Future of the Agribusiness and Livestock Sector in 2026
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Chel means CLAW in Greek. The Mineral needs a support to CLAW itself. This support is provided by Amino Acids and this organic support is called LIGAND in chemistry. Amino Acids have a very low molecular weight and can be absorbed easily through the walls of the intestine and hence are most preferred ligands for chelation. ...
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APIs MARKET Pre-festival stocking-up was generally completed in mid-to-late January. Some two weeks before the holiday, including the early part of this month, the market has no actual trading activity. The market has a strong wait-and-see sentiment and lacks sustained positive support. After returning from the holiday, the sales rhythm of the veterinary API market has not yet fully recovered, and the market activity and scale have not returned to normal levels. Some leading...
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Feed cost accounts for the largest proportion of the production cost of poultry and swine production. Further, the recent disruptions in the supply chain for feed ingredients and the continued consumer demand for food of animal origin that is sustainably produced dictates the need for solutions that utilize locally available resources. In the face of these challenges, significant progress towards a resilient Canadian animal nutrition industry can be realized by reducing dependency on...
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Introduction: Phosphorus is an element with potential impact on the intestinal microbiota of pigs. Studies revealed that bacterial growth was limited in the intestine feeding low concentrations of phosphorus and that ileal bacteria increased with higher calcium and phosphorus feed contents, whereas there was no effect on bacterial numbers in the colon. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of varying phosphorus levels in diets of piglets on the bacterial...
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Introduction: Selenium (Se) is an essential microelement for pigs. In pigs, Se deficiency can lead to fatal, degenerative changes in various muscle groups, including heart muscle, compromised boar fertility and increased morbidity due to weakened immune status. Problems related to Se- deficiency seem to reemerge in feed efficient, fast-growing pigs in Norway. One aim of a large study was to assess the influence of different Se-sources on Se-levels in muscle in Norwegian...
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Introduction: Newly weaned pigs require 50-100 mg/kg of zinc in feed to meet dietary requirements (National Research Council). The addition of high levels of zinc oxide (> 2000 mg/kg) in nursery diets is often used as a preventive measure for Escherichia coli diarrhea and to improve growth performance. The mechanism y which this occurs is still not fully understood, however, it is proposed that zinc oxide has an effect on the gastrointestinal microbiome, due to its...
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Low protein diets have improved nitrogen (N) utilization, but dietary N for the endogenous synthesis of non-essential amino acids (NEAA) may be limiting. Inclusion of a non-protein nitrogen (NPN) may improve utilization of essential amino acids (EAA). A N-balance study was conducted, where 90 growing barrows were assigned to 1 of 10 dietary treatments. Diets contained no ammonium phosphate (NAP; EAA-N:TN of 0.56) or were supplemented with 1.7% ammonium phosphate (AP; EAA-N:TN of 0.50) with...
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Despite environmental and public health (bacterial resistance) issues, supranutritional levels of zinc oxide (ZnO) are still commonly used to prevent diarrhea in post-weaning piglets. In Canada, these levels represent more than eight-fold the CFIA proposed maximum levels at 300 mg/kg. The limited knowledge of their consequences for the metabolism of trace minerals has hampered the replacement of this strategy without compromising piglet health. Our laboratory has performed a series of...
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Prices Hold, Pressures Build: What’s Moving the Veterinary API Market
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Pharmacological levels of Zn in early nursery pig diets reduce the instance of post-weaning diarrhea and improve performance. However, there are growing concerns with pharmacological levels of Zn and much attention has been directed toward strategies to lower dietary Zn without negatively impacting performance. Diet acid-binding capacity-4 (ABC-4) could be an option to formulate low Zn diets. Dietary ABC-4 is the hydrochloric acid required to reach a pH of 4. The young pig has a limited...
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Young Dal Jang (University of Wisconsin–River Falls) This study was conducted to demonstrate the effects of second iron injection before weaning and iron levels in nursery diets on growth performance, hematological parameters, and fecal microbiome of pigs. A total of 70 newborn pigs from 7 sows were allotted to 4 treatments within litter, housed in farrowing crate without creep feed, and received the first dose (200 mg iron) at 2 to 3 d of age....
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