Effects of Supplementation of Hot Melt Extrusion Processed Zinc Sulfate on Growth Performance, Nutrients Digestibility, Small Intestinal Morphologyand Excretion of Zinc in Weanling Pigs
The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of supplementation of hot melt extrusion (HME) processed Zn sulfate on growth performance, nutrients digestibility, small intestinal morphology and excretion of Zn in weanling pigs. A total of 200 piglets of mixed sex randomly allotted to four treatments on the basis of initial BW (7.15±0.81 kg). There were five replicates in each treatment with 10 pigs per replicate. The experimental treatments consisted of: 1) basal diet containing ZnSO4; 2) basal diet containing Zn-Methionine (ZnMet); 3) basal diet containing low level of nano-Zn as HME (ZnHME50); 4) basal diet containing medium level of nano-Zn as HME ZnSO4 (Zn-HME75). The average daily gain was improved by the ZnMet and ZnHME75 compared with the pigs fed ZnSO4 supplemented diets (p=0.009). Moreover, ZnHME75 and ZnMet affected on the ATTD of CP during phase 2 (p=0.014). The villus height (VH) was affected by increasing when pigs fed diets supplemented the ZnHME75 (P=0.044). The pigs fed diets supplemented ZnHME50 had significantly the lowest (p=0.037) Zn content in liver compared with other treatments. The Zn content in the feces was significantly higher (p<0.001) in ZnSO4 and ZnMet compared with ZnHME50 or ZnHME75. In conclusion, it could be concluded that dietary Zn can be reduced by 25% with ZnHME without any detrimental effect on performance of weanling pigs.