Vitamin E-Transfer from Feed into Pig Tissues

Abstract

Flachowsky, G. 2000. Vitamin E-transfer from feed into pig tissues. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 17: 69–80.

Five feeding experiments with growing-finishing pigs were carried out to investigate the influence of the various additional vitamin E levels and application times on vitamin E content of some tissues. Vitamin E content of control diets in all experiments amounted to about 20mg kg⁻¹. Additional vitamin E levels (0.5, 1.0, 1.2g per animal per day) were given 7, 14 or 21 days before slaughtering of pigs and were compared with 100 or 200mg vitamin E per kg feed during the total growing-finishing period. Additional vitamin E intake of various groups amounted to 7.0 to 41.6g per animal. Similar vitamin E intake (∼25g) was achieved in pigs consuming 100mg vitamin E per kg feed or 1.2g vitamin E per day during the last 21 days.

On an average the vitamin E concentration of liver, muscle and backfat of control group amounted to 4.5, 2.5 and 9.5mg kg′, respectively. Vitamin E content of various body tissues increased, with higher vitamin E dosage and longer application time, 100mg vitamin E per kg feed or ∼ 1g vitamin E per day during the last 21 days before slaughtering nearly doubled the vitamin E concentration in body tissues compared with control animals. The transfer of supplemented vitamin E from feed into food from pig amounted to about 1% and is comparable to the vitamin E transfer into milk, beef and poultry meat. The transfer into eggs is much higher (∼25%). Higher vitamin E supplementation of feeds may improve some parameters of quality of food of animal origin, but its contribution for human nutrition is negligible. Furthermore, the higher costs of vitamin E supplementation are mostly not repaid to the farmers.

Key words:

• Vitamin E
• pigs
• intake
• vitamin E content
• vitamin E
• transfer