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Vitamin D₂ Requirement of the Baby Pig^1,2,

Departments of Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Pathology and Biochemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan

The vitamin D requirement of baby pigs receiving a purified diet containing 0.8% of Ca, 0.6% of P and 350 ppm of Mg was studied in three 5-week trials using levels of vitamin D₂ from zero to 10,000 IU/kg of diet. All pigs receiving no dietary vitamin D₂ exhibited symptoms of either acute magnesium deficiency or rickets. Increasing the dietary Mg prevented tetany but not rickets in vitamin D-deficient pigs. All pigs receiving 100 IU or more of vitamin D₂/kg of diet exhibited optimal rates of growth and economy of diet utilization together with normal levels of serum Ca, P, Mg and alkaline phosphatase and adequate skeletal development with the absence of rachitic pathology. Under the conditions of this study the minimal vitamin D₂ requirement of the baby pig is not greater than 100 IU/kg of diet.

² Presented in part at the Sixth International Congress of Nutrition, Edinburgh, August 1963 and the Midwest Section of the American Society of Animal Science, Chicago, November, 1963.

Manuscript received 27 January 1964.