Pork Quality
Manganese and Mg are both divalent, transition
metal cations that may be interchangeable in several
functions within the body. For example, the body can
replace Mn with Mg with similar efficiency in Mn-activated
enzymes (Wapnir, 1990), whereas Mn can replace
Mg in Mg-activated enzymes, such as calcium ATPase
(Chiesi and Inesi, 1981) and sodium-potassium ATPase
(Campos and Beauge, 1988). Gaillard et al. (1996) reported
that supplementing rat diets with Mn increased
urinary Mg levels; however, Sanchez-Morito et al.
(1999) observed that Mn excretion was decreased, and
Mn absorption and retention in skeletal muscle, heart,
and kidney was increased, when rats were fed a Mgdeficient
diet. Therefore, it is plausible that the benefi-
cial effects of supplementing swine diets with Mn on
pork quality are comparable to those noted when supplementing
swine diets with Mg