As part of the study, two experiments were conducted to determine responses to graded levels of calcium in diets fed to pigs from 11 to 25 kilograms.

The findings showed a standardised total tract digestible (STTD) calcium requirement of 0.49 per cent or less for growing pigs from 11 to 25 kilograms.

"Based on these results, the requirement for STTD calcium for 11 to 25 kilogram pigs is likely around 1.35 times the requirement for STTD phosphorus," said Hans H. Stein, professor of animal sciences at Illinois, adding that further experiments need to be conducted to verify this value.

In disease news, Russia has reported 48 new African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks, in backyard pigs and on commercial pig farms.

Poland has also reported an ASF outbreak this week.

In Canada, influenza has become an increasingly challenging infection to deal with within the swine herd, according to Dr Susan Detmer, veterinary pathologist with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine.

Speaking to Farmscape, Dr Detmer explained that western Canada's swine herd is generally healthy and strong but influenza remains present and is always a risk.

"We have these emerging strains that seem to be causing more respiratory illness within the nursery age group and we actually have had increased mortality within the nursery groups around four to five weeks of age and that has been actually quite dramatic on some farms with some strains of influenza.
We've had a new strain that emerged in 2013 in Manitoba. It's had limited spread outside of Manitoba but it is causing a huge problem within Manitoba."