Effects of doses of ZnO or Zn-Glutamate on growth performance, gut characteristics, health and immunity of early-weaned pigs orally challenged with E. coli K88

Abstract

Research shows that dietary zinc oxide (ZnO) at pharmacological level improves growth and/or reduces diarrhoea in weaned pigs (Mavromichaelis et al., 2000). However, the theories to explain ZnO action conflict with experimental data, and it is not clear if other zinc sources supplied over requirements can improve growth or health of piglet. Thus, dietary strategies to supplement zinc within the EU rules are difficulty identified. Recent findings show also that dietary glutamate reduces villus atrophy after weaning (Ewtushik et al., 2000) and is an important fuel for the enterocyte (Reeds et al., 2000)...

Keywords

• piglet, Escherichia coli K88, zinc, growth, immunity.