Table 3.

Ileal digestibility and retention of calcium and phosphorus and their deposition in eggs and bones (trial 1)^1,2.

	Phytase			SEM	Significance level
	0	187.5	375.0		Phytase	Linear
Ileal digestibility, %
Dry matter	70.5	67.1	66.7	2.94	0.318	0.688
Calcium	86.5	81.1	77.3	4.35	0.181	0.877
Phosphorus	51.2	68.5	64.1	3.37	< 0.001	0.012
Retention, %
Dry matter	70.6	69.8	69.1	0.94	0.339	0.999
Calcium	39.6	46.5	41.7	4.37	0.407	0.282
Phosphorus	12.3	13.1	18.7	2.78	0.290	0.487
Egg
Egg weight, g	61.3	61.0	59.6	0.23	0.281	0.122
Eggshell, %	13.6	12.7	13.0	0.28	0.043	0.168
Egg contents, %	86.4	87.3	87.0	0.28	0.043	0.168
Eggshell, %
Dry matter	71.4	72.8	73.0	0.94	0.187	0.214
Calcium	35.5	35.7	35.5	0.16	0.801	0.864
Phosphorus	0.11	0.11	0.10	0.01	0.239	0.065
Egg contents, %
Dry matter	26.35	24.64	23.40	0.46	< 0.001	< 0.001
Calcium	0.19	0.20	0.21	0.01	0.010	0.013
Phosphorus	0.68	0.72	0.76	0.01	< 0.001	< 0.001
Bone, %
Ash	64.2	64.1	64.2	0.54	0.863	0.955
Calcium	23.9	23.9	24.0	0.22	0.774	0.608
Phosphorus	10.7	10.9	11.0	0.09	0.570	0.397

¹The control diet was formulated to provide 34.3 g/kg Ca and 0.9 g/kg non-phytate P; the phytase activity was analyzed as 231 and 494 FYT/kg feed for the phytase treatments.

²There were 30 replicates for retention and egg parameters, 20 replicates for bone parameters and 15 replicates for ileal digestibility.