Skeletal health

As pigs grow leaner and faster, maintaining skeletal health is paramount. Balancing nutrient allocation between muscle and bone development is essential. Micronutrients like phosphorus and vitamins D and B play critical roles. Understanding bone-muscle dynamics is crucial to preventing skeletal issues in pigs that have an enormous propensity for lean gain.

This increase in protein deposition potential and average daily gain seen in today's highly efficient fatteners can trigger challenges in the development and health of bone. Muscle and bone deposition compete for allocation of the same nutrients but muscle deposition will always take the priority. For example, key micronutrients such as certain sulfur amino acids, phosphorus, and certain micronutrients, such as vitamin D and certain trace elements can becoming limiting if repartitioning is prioritized excessively in one direction. Requirements and kinetic of the development of these two tissues are quite different. Sometimes incompatibilities arise, at least at the mineral level where bone formation requires high level of calcium relative to phosphorous, whereas soft tissue and muscle accretion requires more phosphorous relative to calcium. As vitamin D receptors (VDRs) are located on both muscle and bones cells, vitamin D influences both tissues therefore circulating blood levels of vitamin D are decisive in one or other of the biological and cellular functions also.