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Report no. 442Christian Fink Hansen By
Jan Dahl
07.09.1999
The effect of feed’s calcium content on Salmonella, the feed’s acid binding capacity and production results of finishers
Abstract
The feed’s acid binding capacity expresses the amount 0.1 M hydrochloric acid to be added to 1 kg feed in order to reduce pH to 3.0. The test comprised the following treatments:
The chemical analyses of the feed showed that the analysed content of calcium per FUp was approx. 5% lower in the control mix than calculated, and it was approx. 14% higher than calculated in the test feed. Thus, the desired difference in calcium content and thereby the acid binding capacity between the two groups was not reached. Both mixes were tested on finishers in the weight interval 27-101 kg in one conventional herd. In total, there were approx. 385 pigs per group divided into 42 blocks (replicates). The production value was calculated on the basis of the production results and is stated as gross margin per pen place per year using the same price for both mixes. Due to very few Salmonella-positive blood samples in the herd in the test period, it was not possible to draw any conclusions on the effect of a low calcium content in the feed on the prevalence of Salmonella. Overall, the test showed that it was possible to lower the feed’s acid binding capacity with approx. 90 meq by reducing the addition of calcium to the feed from 7.6 to 5.7 g Ca/FUp. If the content of calcium was lowered to 5.7 g Ca/FUp this caused a significant reduction of the production value compared to the control group that was given 7.6 g Ca/FUp. |
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