An Overview of Mineral and Vitamin Requirements of Swine in the National Research Council (1944 to 1998) Publicationsce¹

A knowledge of nutrient requirements is essential to allow fuller expression of genotypic ability while minimizing unwanted economic expense in swine production. The NRC publications were developed to provide this information and have been widely used in academia and in the swine feed industry. However, the accuracy of nutrient requirements, especially minerals and vitamins, is often a subject of debate. Thus, the objective of the current paper was to review the mineral and vitamin requirements in the NRC publications. To accomplish this, the mineral and vitamin requirements in the NRC publications from 1944 to 1998 were restructured and summarized. Initial nutrient requirement estimates and changes over time were tabulated. The number of citations supporting the relevant nutrient requirement was counted as a measure of the reliability of the requirement estimation. The contemporaneity of supporting studies was measured by counting the citations by decades. In summary, the number of minerals and vitamins for which a requirement is provided has increased from the initial publication. However, many of these requirement estimates have not changed much over the years. Recent citations for many minerals and vitamins were lacking, especially for starting pigs and reproducing sows. These research gaps in the mineral and vitamin nutrition of swine may illustrate unknown limitations on health and performance and may be opportunities for research.