Recent advances in understanding the role of vitamins in pig nutrition Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada

Recent advances in understanding the role of vitamins in pig nutrition Charlotte Lauridsen, Aarhus University, Denmark; and J. Jacques Matte, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada1 Introduction2 Supply of vitamins to pigs3 Growth performance, antioxidative pressure and immunological competence4 Vitamins and antioxidation capacity: new perspectives5 Conclusion and future trends6 Where to look for further information7 ReferencesThere is, in general, a lack of scientific information on the requirements for vitamins in the modern intensive swine production, as official recommendations are primarily based on genetically outdated lines of pigs and production conditions which have changed dramatically during the last 30 years. Depending upon the source of information, either from Denmark or from Canada, growth and reproduction performance of modern lines of pigs would correspond to daily weight gains over 900 g in the finishing phase and to litter size of 13 (CCSI, 2015) to 16 liveborn/litter (VSP, 2015). Such a level of performance associated with reduced antibiotic usage pig production systems are factors influencing the vitamin requirement, and more information on the optimal vitamin nutrition in this aspect is needed. The level of scientific knowledge for each vitamin is also heterogeneous and empiricism is still present in this field, which is reflected by large variations of vitamin fortifications used in commercial conditions, as reported by previous and recent surveys (BASF, 1993; BASF, 2001; Flohr et al., 2016). Since the middle of the twentieth century, vitamin requirements for pigs have changed from prevention of deficiencies (practically absent nowadays) to optimization of performance for growth and reproduction. However, less information is available on vitamin requirements for optimal immunity and/or meat nutritional quality, although there is a major interest in optimizing these issues throughnutritional strategies in the pig production systems. The challenge for the future is to realign objectives from the performance criteria alone to other aspects such as stress and disease resistance.