Animals can receive vitamin D throu

Animals can receive vitamin D through their diet in the form of cholecalciferol (vitamin D3). This then needs to be converted by the liver (25 OH D3) and the kidneys (1,25 (OH)2 D3). The resulting substance stimulates the absorption of calcium from the intestine. Even if there is enough calcium in the feed, if the vitamin D content is too low, the animal can still not absorb and use enough of this calcium.Another point to note is that plant-based food contains no vitamin D3 but only the provitamin D2 (ergocalciferol), which still needs to be converted by the body. This is in contrast to animal-based foods that may contain vitamin D3 (e.g. oily fish and eggs). Nowadays our pigs are largely vegetarian, and in addition to this we usually keep them indoors.This article was originally written in Dutch by Karien Koenders, Veterinarian, Topigs Norsvin, The Netherlands.