Influence of dietary phosphorus concentration on the digestibility of phosphorus in monocalcium phosphate by growing pigs

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the dietary inclusion rate of P does not influence the digestibility of P. The experiment was conducted at 4 experiment stations where the same protocol was followed. A total of 60 growing pigs (initial BW: 22.22 +/- 2.13 kg) were allotted to 6 dietary treatments with 10 replications per treatment. All pigs were placed in metabolism cages that allowed for the total, but separate, collection of urine and fecal materials. Six diets were formulated. The basal diet was based on corn (54.2%), soybean meal (20%), and cornstarch. No inorganic P was used, and the total concentration of P in the basal diet was calculated to be 0.29%. Five additional diets were formulated by adding monocalcium phosphate (MCP) in increments of 0.34% to the basal diet and thereby creating diets that were calculated to contain 0.36, 0.43, 0.50, 0.57, and 0.64% total P, respectively. Ground limestone was also added to these diets to maintain a calculated Ca:P ratio of 1.2:1. The balances of Ca and P and the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of Ca and P were calculated for each diet. The contribution of P from the basal diet was then subtracted from the MCP-containing diets to calculate the balance and ATTD for P in MCP. Results of the experiment showed that the absorption and retention of both Ca and P increased (linear, P < 0.001) with increasing concentrations of Ca and P in the diet. The ATTD for Ca ranged from 62.3 to 66.8% and was not influenced by the dietary concentration of Ca. However, the ATTD for P increased from 38.4 to 65.2% as increasing levels of MCP were added to the diet (linear, P < 0.001). Increasing P intake from MCP increased (linear, P < 0.001) the excretion of P in the feces, but the quantity of P that was absorbed and retained also increased (linear, P < 0.001) as more P from MCP was added to the diet. When measured as a percentage of P intake, P retention was not influenced by the dietary P concentration. The ATTD for P in MCP ranged from 79.5 to 88.5% and was not affected by the concentration of P in the diet. Results of this experiment demonstrated that the digestibility and absorption of P from MCP are not influenced by the dietary concentration of P.