Understanding How Vitamin D Can Support the Health and Well-Being of Animals

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is critical for maintaining the health and well-being of humans and animals. Importantly, adequate levels of vitamin D support the immune system and provide improved protection against illnesses. In addition, vitamin D functions to improve the absorption of Ca, P, and Mg from the diet, as well as their homeostasis in bones and other tissues. This role is especially relevant for bone growth and maintenance in all animals, and eggshell production in poultry.

To assess levels of vitamin D, serum 25-OH D3 is the validated biomarker in humans and animals. Concentrations of 25-OH D3 are typically quantified in ng/mL and with a half-life of two weeks. Other measures, such as blood vitamin D3 or 1,25-OH2 D3 are considered ineffective, as their half-lives are approximately 1 day, and 4-6 hours respectively. In addition, the synthesis of 1,25-OH2 D3 is tightly regulated and is present in low concentrations.

Dietary vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol) can be provided by food sources such as fish, eggs, and vitamin D3 supplements. Alternatively, Vitamin D2 can be found in plant sources. The synthesis of vitamin D3 from sunlight and UVB exposure to skin is an important, natural source for some species; but seasonality and housing can cause this to be an unreliable source. Vitamin D3 is transported in the blood to the liver by a binding protein, where it is hydroxylated to form 25-OH D3 (25-hydroxycholecalciferol). Finally, the 25-OH D3 enters the circulation and can be taken up by the kidney and other, extra-renal tissues, where the formation of 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol (active form) is physiologically regulated.

An alternative and widely accepted dietary form of vitamin D is pure 25-OH D3, or Hy-D®. The relative biopotency of Hy-D is two to five times that of vitamin D3 when using equivalent amounts (expressed as either IU or µg). The use of Hy-D in the diets of some food animal species is well supported in the literature, and there is an extensive amount of published research using pure 25-OH D3 from Hy-D in multiple species including 100+ research trials demonstrating the safety and benefits of Hy-D in diets for poultry, swine and ruminants globally. Hy-D has been on the market for 25+ years and is fed every year to over 2.6M pigs, 3M layers, 23M turkeys & 2.7B broilers. Hy-D can be incorporated into an animal’s diet through addition to feed, or by inclusion through a water source.

In swine, Hy-D has been shown to improve structural soundness in gilts and also has demonstrated a higher number of liveborn and weaned piglets in sows and gilts compared to their respective controls.^{1, 2, 3} In growing animals, it has reduced osteochondrosis lesions compared to control.⁴ In a Canadian study completed in 2013, wean pigs given 25-OH D3 had higher vitamin D serum levels, which correlated to the increase in the number of blood leukocytes, particularly lymphocytes and granulocytes.⁵ This suggests improved uptake through the intestinal mucosa when compared to traditional vitamin D3 preparations. 25-OH D3 was able to improve the capacity of alveolar macrophage subsets to survive and upregulate their functional antimicrobial responses compared to control (Figure 1).⁵

To learn more about the dietary inclusion of 25-OH D3 from Hy-D various food animals – check out the articles and the references below.

References

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Published on

18 December 2023