Phytase activity in phosphorus deficient and adequate swine diets

Graphical Abstract

Cereal grains found in swine diets contain phytate, a storage form of phosphorus that is largely unavailable for use by the animal. To improve phosphorous bioavailability, diets are supplemented with phytase, an enzyme that degrades phytate to inositol phosphate isomers and inorganic phosphorus (Kebreab et al., 2012; Rosenfelder-Kuon et al., 2020). Inclusion of the enzyme in swine diets can improve calcium and phosphorus digestibility in pigs as well as increase average daily gain and feed efficiency (Ren et al., 2020). Because many of the formative studies with phytase supplementation were performed with P deficient diets, a recent study examined phytase mediated phosphorus release in diets adequate for the mineral (Olsen et al., 2021). Results indicate that phytase behaves differently when supplemented into phosphorus deficient or adequate diets.