Interaction of Dietary Electrolytes in the Nutrition of Poultry and Swine

The balance of dietary monovalent electrolytes has been reported to affect many performance-related parameters. When the balance is expressed as Na+K-Cl value in meq per kg of diet, growth rate, eggshell quality, calcification of bone (re: tibia1 dyschondroplasia) and the utilization of arginine in the presence of excess lysine in.poultry is favored by a balance of 200-300 meq per kg of diet. In swine the optimum balance for growth rate may be similar to that for poultry. Some studies suggest that NaHC03 or KHCO3 supplements may enhance performance on lysine-limited diets but more research is needed to verify these findings. Practical diets for poultry and swine contain Na+K-Cl values of approximately 150480 meq per kg. Increasing the value to 200 or more may be accomplished by supplementation of practical diets with NaHC03 or KHC03 and by avoiding excessive levels of chloride.