A Detailed Explanation of Pigs' Mineral Nutrition Requirements and Supplementation Methods

It has now been proven that pigs have about 40 kinds of essential mineral elements, which are divided into two major categories according to their content in the pig's body: macroelements and microelements. Elements with a content of 50 mg/kg or above are macroelements, mostly expressed as a percentage; elements below 50 mg/kg are microelements, mostly expressed in mg/kg.

Pigs need at least 14 inorganic elements, including the macroelements calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), sodium (Na), chlorine (Cl), potassium (K), sulfur (S), magnesium (Mg) and the microelements iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), iodine (I), selenium (Se) and cobalt (Co). In addition, other elements such as arsenic (As), bromine (Br), chromium (Cr), boron (B), cadmium (Cd), fluorine (F), lead (Pb), lithium (Li), molybdenum (Mo), nickel (Ni), silicon (Si), tin (Sn) and vanadium (V) may also be essential for pigs.

Non-mineral feed ingredients for pigs generally contain various mineral elements, but the amounts provided by most ingredients cannot meet the nutritional needs of pigs. Moreover, because various plant-based ingredients are affected by the water, soil and climatic conditions of the growing area, industrial pollution, as well as variety, production season and harvest period, they show obvious regional differences. In production, minerals and microelements should be supplemented reasonably according to local actual conditions.