Piglets have every reason to be annoyed with Mother Nature. Sows’ milk often lacks enough vitamins and essential minerals—especially iron and copper—that young pigs need to grow. When piglets don’t get these nutrients, they can develop health problems. So how do farmers fix nature’s oversight?
In some countries, chemists have formulated artificial milks to feed piglets, and those experiments have been successful. That artificial milk supplies the nutrients piglets need for normal development.
Nature was a bit more generous with cow’s milk. It’s often called ‘a meal in a bottle’ because it contains almost everything a calf needs.
But even cow’s milk has a flaw: it contains a high concentration of calcium salts, which can make it hard for young animals to digest. Chemists in Kyiv have worked around that problem. Using substances called ion-exchangers, they remove the excess salts, producing an “adjusted” milk that’s easier for a young animal’s body to absorb.
