Bone mineralisation of weaned piglets fed a diet free of inorganic XXXX and supplemented with phytase, as assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.

@entity1707 @entity3151 @entity79
UNASSIGNED: Sixteen female piglets (58 d of age, 16.8      0.8  kg body weight [BW]) were assigned to two groups (n  =  8) and received until day 100 of age (50.3      1.2  kg BW) ad libitum either a diet with a standard (diet C) or low (diet L) total @entity3151 (P) content (5.38 and 4.23  g/kg, respectively). Diet C was supplemented with mineral P (1.15  g/kg) and did not contain microbial phytase. Diet L did not contain any inorganic P but 750  FTU/kg of microbial phytase. Despite these treatments, both diets were composed with the same ingredients. Body mineralisation of each gilt was assessed by determining the bone mineral content (BMC), area @entity79 ( @entity79 ) by the dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at days 58, 72, 86 and 100 of age. Feeding diet L caused a higher P digestibility (p  =  0.008) measured from days 72 to 86 of age and at 100  days of age a higher BMC and @entity79 (p   <=  0.01). Furthermore, the gilts of group L deposited more minerals in the body than control @entity1707 (by 2.4  g/d, p  =  0.008). It was found that @entity79 and BMC were positively correlated with body lean mass and digestible P intake. The results indicated that, even for very young @entity1707 , the addition of microbial phytase instead of inorganic P increases the amount of digestible P covering the requirements of piglets for proper bone mineralisation. Furthermore, it was proved that the DXA method can be successfully applied to measure body fat and lean mass contents as well as bone mineralisation of growing @entity1707 using the same animals.
