Effect Of Nanometer Zinc Oxide On Growth Performance And Blood Biochemical Indexes Of Weanling Piglets

A six-week experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different levels nanometer zinc oxide (nano-ZnO) on growth performance and blood biochemical indexes of weanling piglets. 36 crossbred (landrace×landrace× taihu) pigs weanled at 28 day of age, were randomly allotted into the six dietary treatments with three replicates per treatment and two pigs per replicate.zinc sulfate(ZnSO₄, 100mg/kg Zn, control ), nano-ZnO( 100, 1500, 2500mg/kg Zn ), feed-grade zinc oxide (ZnO, 2000mg/kg Zn) and nano-ZnO with high copper (1500mg/kg Zn +200mg/kg Cu) were used in the baseal corn-soybean meal diet , respectively. Body gain, feed intake and feed conversion rate (FCR), diarrhea rate, the erythrocyte osmotic fragility, and Zn content, alkaline phosphatase activity, transaminase activity, urea nitrogen, total protein, glucose, Cu content in serum were examined in the experiment ,respectively. The results showed : (1) there was not significantly different to meet nutrition requirement of Zn between nano-ZnO and ZnSO₄ , and feeding basal dietary with lOOmg/kg nano-ZnO did not significantly affect ADG (average day weight gain) (p>0. 05), but reduced FCR 11.90% and 7.70% during 0-2 week and 2-4 week after weanling than feeding control dietary respectively. (2) Supplmenting high level nano-ZnO and ZnO enhanced significantly growth performance of weanling piglets. Diarrhea rate of piglets was lower when nano-ZnO was fed than when ZnSO₄ and ZnO were fed. And , to reduce diarrhea rate, feeding high level nano-ZnO (2500mg/kg) was better than feeding normal level. But piglets need to be fed high level Zn at most during 4 weeks after weaning. (3) Additive responses to growth-promotant levels of highnano-ZnO(1500mg/kg) with high Cu(200mg/kg) were observed. And the additive growth response was not affected by lasting time of the combination of Zn and Cu. (4) Supplmenting high level nano-ZnO increased significantly Zn content, alkaline phosphatase activity, glucose content in serum, and reduced transaminase activity, urea nitrogen in serum, but did not affect significantly serum total protein.