ering capacity — attacks the root of the
problem, giving a more nutritionally correct
and effective diet. The correctness of the
diet can be calculated using acid binding
capacity data or electrolyte balance infor-
mation. These two concepts are closely
correlated, since diets with a negative elec-
trolyte balance have a lower buffering ca-
pacity than those with a positive balance.
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VICTAM/ASIA2010,
booth#901
simple, but rather extreme, example of
negative electrolyte balance is the acid
naturally present in the stomach. This is
hydrochloric acid. Its formula of HCl shows
that it is formed from the cation hydrogen
(H) and the anion chlorine (Cl). Whereas
H has a mass of 1, however, the mass of
chlorine is 35 so the result is a negative
balance of minus 34 — confirming that hydrochloric acid is extremely acidic!
By contrast, hydrochloric acid has a
potassium salt in the form of potassium
chloride (KCl) in which the electrolyte balance is positive. Since potassium has an
equivalent mass of 39 compared with the
35 of chlorine, the balance is plus 4.
This type of lactation
diet can adapt the sow’s
gut micro-flora before
the piglets’ birth.
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An assessment along these lines
should be done of the dietary cation/anion
difference of the pig’s feed. The aim is
to achieve a negative balance in order to
make more nutrients available to the animal
while decreasing their availability to pathogens in the large intestine.
There are times when the feed formulation does not achieve the required negative
electrolyte balance, such as can happen
with very high density creep diets. The corrective action in that case would be to calculate an appropriate quantity of acidifier
and incorporate it in the feed formula.
As greater demands are placed on the
genetically superior pig’s performance,
larger quantities of nutrients must be made
available to the animal and metabolised by
it. A limiting factor here is likely to be the
volume of the gut, whether we are talking
about the young growing pig of less than
60 kilograms in weight or the lactating sow
suckling 10 or more vigorous piglets.
Lactating sows and gilts
Compared with the dietary needs of
the growing pig, however, the requirements
