Inorganic Feed Phosphorus
Calcium (Ca) is the most and phosphorus (P) is the second abundant minerals in the animal body and feed. Broilers and young pigs with a high growth of production performance require readily retainable Ca and P compounds in order to build up their skeletons, tissues, and metabolic processes. The compound feed for poultry and swine are mainly based on cereals which are not only low in phosphorus content but also in bioavailability (Khajarern et al., 1993). As a result of the unavailability of plant P for nonruminant, feed phosphate, are almost always incorporated in the diets of poultry and swine. Among the commercially available feed phosphate, however different calcium phosphates show differences in bioavailability that largely determine the price differences between them. Eeckhout and Paepe (1997) reported from overview of apparent digestible P figures varying between 52 and 71% for dihydrate dicalcium phosphate (CaHPO4.2H2O), between 54 and 87% for anhydrous dicalcium phosphate (CaHPO4), and finally, for monocalcium phosphate (Ca (H2PO4)2) between 64 and 91%.