Mechanistic modeling can be used to predict phosphorus and calcium requirements for swine and poultry.
Calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) should be provided in feed to swine and poultry in precise and balanced amounts according to the growth phase and rate or production status. Both minerals are implied in ossification, eggshell formation, and milk production. Consequently, accurate determination of needs for both minerals has animal well-being and production impacts.
Additionally, both minerals interact for proper absorption and utilization and should be studied together, but many other dietary factors can impact their requirements. For example, phytase supplementation, vitamin D sources, levels of protein, fat, and organic acids. The solubility of the minerals and the particle size may also impact their utilization. The efficiency of phytases or the biopotency of vitamin D sources can impact these needs. The requirement or optimum levels of Ca and P also vary depending on the criteria to optimize. Bone ash or bone strength requires higher levels than growth or feed utilization efficiency, which varies with age. Lately, another criterion is to minimize P excretion to the environment.
The complex characteristics to determine Ca and P requirement makes modeling one of the best methodologies to attempt complete understanding and more accurate calculation seeking multicriteria. Models can aid in calculating the effects of phytases, depletion, and repletion strategies to prime the animal to be more efficient, and finally combining these strategies into a precision feeding model that provides daily tailored diets for individual pigs or flocks of birds with similar conditions. This tool also predicts the amount of P excreted in the slurry.
Phosphorus has received more attention lately due to its impact on the sustainability of animal production for two different reasons. On one side, phosphorus is a non-renewable resource, and mined sources have become scarce worldwide. The prices have skyrocketed in the past months, with a tendency to reach the historic maximum observed in October 2008, or US$450 per ton (Figure 1). On the other side, phosphorus excretion can quickly cause over-fertilization in soils because plant uptake can be lower than deposition, and water has great eutrophication potential, which leads to an increase in aquatic plant growth.
Figure 1. World’s average prices (US Dollar per metric ton) of phosphate rock prices from 1960 to October 2022. Sour...
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