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Understanding How Vitamin D Can Support the Health and Well-Being of Animals
18 Dec 2023
Adequate levels of vitamin D are critical to support animal and human health. Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that plays an important role in the physiological regulation of Ca/P and bone growth, and there’s increasing recognition for its importance in immunity. Currently, serum 25-OH D3 is the most widely accepted biomarker to measure levels of vitamin D in humans and animals due to its high blood concentration and long half-life. While vitamin D3 (present in some animal-based ingredients) and vitamin D2 (present in some plants) can be dietary sources to supplement the variable synthesis of vitamin D3 from sunlight and UVB exposure to skin, 25-OH D3 (Hy-D®) is a highly researched and commonly used dietary source to ensure optimum levels of vitamin D in food animals.