A Feed Fat Ingredients and Mineral Digestibility experiment was conducted to determine the effect of supplementing diets fed to growing pigs with fat sources that differ in their concentrations of fatty acids on the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of Ca, P, Mg, Zn, Mn, Na, and K. A basal diet based on corn and potato protein isolate was formulated that contained 7% sucrose. Five additional diets that were similar to the previous diet except that sucrose was replaced by 7% tallow, choice white grease (CWG), palm oil (PO), corn oil (CO), or soybean oil (SBO) were formulated. Diets were formulated to contain 0.70% Ca and 0.33% standardized total tract digestible P. Sixty growing barrows weighing about 16 kg were allotted to a randomized complete block design with six dietary treatments and ten replicate pigs per treatment. Experimental diets were provided for 12 days with the initial five day being the adaptation period. Total feces were collected for five days using the marker-to-marker approach.

Results-The ATTD of Ca was greater (P < 0.05) for pigs fed diets containing SBO, CO, PO, or tallow than for pigs fed the basal diet or the CWG diet, but pigs fed the diet containing tallow were not different from pigs fed a diet containing CWG. ATTD of P was greater (P < 0.05) for diets containing SBO or tallow compared with the basal diet or the CWG diet. The ATTD of Mg, Zn, Mn, Na, and K were not different among treatments. The research team concluded that supplementation of CWG to diets fed to pigs does not change the digestibility of minerals, but tallow, PO, CO, and SBO may increase the digestibility of Ca and P, but not of other minerals.

Adebiyi, A.O. D. Ragland, O. Adeola, O. A. Olukosi. 2015. Apparent or Standardized Ileal Digestibility of Amino Acids of Diets Containing Different Protein Feedstuffs Fed at Two Crude Protein Levels for Growing Pigs. Asian-Australian J. Anim. Sci. 28(9): 1327-1334.