Growing interests in dietary manipulation to reduce P excretion in animal manure and P loss from agricultural soils to the environment have led to strategies such as the use of phytase in monogastric animal diets. The efficacy of phytase has been confirmed by several studies that reported its ability to hydrolyze phytate P present in grain feeds and thus, reduce manure total P. However, the solubility of manure P from phytase supplemented diets in soils is not well known, and as thus, the environmental implications of dietary P manipulation require further investigation. Two related studies were carried out in the laboratory to investigate the fate of manure phosphorus (P) from pigs fed phytase supplemented diets in Manitoba soils. The first study characterized the forms of manure P from phytase supplemented swine diets to evaluate their potential environmental impact. The seven dietary treatments fed randomly to a total of 28 growing pigs were: a positive control that contained P at the NRC (1998) recommendations (NRC), a negative control (RED) containing 0.1 percentage units reduction (about 33%) in available P from 1998 NRC recommendations, RED with 500 U of phytase kg-1 of diet (RED + P1), RED with 1000 U of phytase kg-1of diet (RED + P2), a double negative control with no added inorganic P (DNC), DNC plus 2000 U of phytase kg-1 of diet (DNC + P3) and DNC plus 4000 U of phytase kg-1 of diet (DNC + P4). The second study examined the solubility of manure P from the manure collected from the first study. Manure collected from the first study were applied at a rate of 75 kg of total P ha-1 of soil to surface samples from four Manitoba soils (0-15 cm); Osborne clay (Rego Humic Gleysol/Gleysolic Humic Vertisol), Red River clay (Gleyed Rego Black Chernozem/Gleyed Humic Vertisol), Ladywood very fine sandy loam (Gleyed Dark Gray Chernozem), and Glenhope loamy fine sand (Gleyed Rego Black Chernozem). In the first experiment, total P in feces and manure were significantly reduced (p < 0.05) with phytase addition to the diets. The labile P concentration (sum of H2O–P and NaHCO3-P) was about 71 to 89% and 77 to 89% of total P in both feces and manure, respectively. Phytase addition to the diets reduced the labile P in feces. The solubility of P was greatest in the calcareous soils amended with the manure from the DNC diets and solubility of P varied with time and extracting solutions. Although, a combination of physico-chemical properties (e.g. CEC, Exchangeable Ca2+), texture seems to play a significant role, as P solubility increased in coarse textured soils after longer period of incubation (16wks). However, our results showed that phytase supplementation in the diets of pigs did not affect the solubility of manure P in amended soils.

Growing interests in dietary manipulation to reduce P excretion in animal manure and P loss from agricultural soils to the environment have led to strategies such as the use of phytase in monogastric animal diets. The efficacy of phytase has been confirmed by several studies that reported its ability to hydrolyze phytate P present in grain feeds and thus, reduce manure total P. However, the solubility of manure P from phytase supplemented diets in soils is not well known, and as thus, the environmental implications of dietary P manipulation require further investigation. Two related studies were carried out in the laboratory to investigate the fate of manure phosphorus (P) from pigs fed phytase supplemented diets in Manitoba soils. The first study characterized the forms of manure P from phytase supplemented swine diets to evaluate their potential environmental impact. The seven dietary treatments fed randomly to a total of 28 growing pigs were: a positive control that contained P at the NRC (1998) recommendations (NRC), a negative control (RED) containing 0.1 percentage units reduction (about 33%) in available P from 1998 NRC recommendations, RED with 500 U of phytase kg-1 of diet (RED + P1), RED with 1000 U of phytase kg-1of diet (RED + P2), a double negative control with no added inorganic P (DNC), DNC plus 2000 U of phytase kg-1 of diet (DNC + P3) and DNC plus 4000 U of phytase kg-1 of diet (DNC + P4). The second study examined the solubility of manure P from the manure collected from the first study. Manure collected from the first study were applied at a rate of 75 kg of total P ha-1 of soil to surface samples from four Manitoba soils (0-15 cm); Osborne clay (Rego Humic Gleysol/Gleysolic Humic Vertisol), Red River clay (Gleyed Rego Black Chernozem/Gleyed Humic Vertisol), Ladywood very fine sandy loam (Gleyed Dark Gray Chernozem), and Glenhope loamy fine sand (Gleyed Rego Black Chernozem). In the first experiment, total P in feces and manure were significantly reduced (p < 0.05) with phytase addition to the diets. The labile P concentration (sum of H2O–P and NaHCO3-P) was about 71 to 89% and 77 to 89% of total P in both feces and manure, respectively. Phytase addition to the diets reduced the labile P in feces. The solubility of P was greatest in the calcareous soils amended with the manure from the DNC diets and solubility of P varied with time and extracting solutions. Although, a combination of physico-chemical properties (e.g. CEC, Exchangeable Ca2+), texture seems to play a significant role, as P solubility increased in coarse textured soils after longer period of incubation (16wks). However, our results showed that phytase supplementation in the diets of pigs did not affect the solubility of manure P in amended soils.