Delicate changes of bioapatite mineral in pig femur with addition of dietary xylooligosaccharide: Evidences from Raman spectroscopy and ICP.

Bone mineral is strongly correlated with performance and health of animal bodies. The mineral bioapatite (BAp) is the dominant component in bone tissue. This study investigated mineralogical changes of BAp in pig femur by Raman spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The pigs had been raised with various xylooligosaccharide (XOS) additions at two stages of growth (growing and fattening periods). The results show that XOS can decrease the degree of carbonate substitution for PO4 in BAp mineral and improve the mineral's crystallinity. ICP data is consistent with the Raman results, that is the low solubility of bone BAp for pigs fed with XOS. Additionally, the effect of XOS is much better in the growing period (before 65 kg) than in the fattening period (after 65 kg). Moreover, the high addition of XOS (within the range of 0.1-0.5 g/kg) would be appropriate to improve the crystallinity of bone BAp. This study sheds light on applying Raman and ICP techniques to investigate the delicate changes of mineral in pig bones undergoing different managements.