Iron Nutrition and Anaemia in Piglets: a Review

Man has known that iron plays an important role in health and disease for considerable time (Loosli, 1978). Bryan (1931) stated that documented therapeutic use of iron date back as far as 1500BC. Iron was recognised as vital nutrient for animal (Boussingault, 1872). Braasch (1981) was the first to describe anaemia in nursing pigs that were being reared in confinement in Germany. However, he didn’t equate the anaemia with iron deficiency but instead with management. Anaemia in nursing pigs was first link to iron deficiency by (McGowan and Chrichton, 1924). Iron is a very vital component of every living thing. Bothwell et al., (1988) estimated that a 70kg adult human has a whole body iron of 60-70 parts per million (ppm). The concentration in piglets at birth is 20-30 ppm (Venn et al., 1977). Of this concentration in the piglet, 475 is associated with blood, 1.6% in the spleen, 15% in the liver and th remaining 44% is found in body tissues (Thoren-Tolling, 1995). Following the neonatal period around 80% in the pig is associated with haemoglobin (Hb) {National Research Council, 1979}. Th majority of body iron is bound to proteins as heme complexes or nonheme complexes. The most common heme complexes are Hb and myoglobin, while the common nonheme complexes are of two storage forms viz: feritin and haemosiderin, and one transport form called transferin.