Influence Of Chelating Zinc On Production Performances And Blood Biochemical Indices Of Raccoon Dogs (Nyctereutes Pro- Cyonides)

Adding the different ratios of chelating zinc and inorganic zinc to the diet of raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonides) in the different periods. Through the feeding experiments, slaughter-ing experiments and digestion experiments to discussed the influences of growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood biochemical indices and fur quality. Methods and results were pre-sented as follows:Exp 1:A total of 120 growing raccoon dogs were randomly selected and divided into 4 groups each containing 30 animals with equal sexes. Three groups were assigned as the ex-perimental groups and the fourth group was used as control. Met-Zn (chelating zinc) and ZnSO·H2O (inorganic zinc) were added to the diet of the experimental groups the ratios of 50:20,60:10,70:0 mg/kg.70 mg/kg ZnSO4·H2O was added to the diet of control group (the data was zinc content). The experiments continued 65 days. The growth performance and nutri-ent digestibility of growing raccoon dogs were studied through the feeding experiments. Re-sults indicated that:(1) When added 50 mg/kg and 60 mg/kg chelating zinc, the weight of raccoon dogs were significantly higher than control group (P<0.01); when added 70 mg/kg chelating zinc, the weight of raccoon dogs were significantly higher than control group (P< 0.05).(2) The feed conversion rate of experimental groups was also significantly higher than of the control group (P< 0.01).(3) When added 60 mg/kg chelating zinc, the apparent digestibility of crude protein and crude fat in the experimental groups were significantly higher than the control group (P< 0.01); when added 50 mg/kg and 70 mg/kg chelating zinc, the apparent digestibility of crude protein and crude fat in the experimental groups had no significant difference than the control group(P > 0.05).All the experiment results indicated that when added 60 mg/kg (Total content of zinc is 111.23 mg/kg) chelating zinc to the diet, the growth performance and nutrient digestibility reached the highest level on growing raccoon dogs. And this ratio is more suitable for the growth of growing raccoon dogs.Exp 2:A total of 120 furring raccoon dogs were randomly selected and divided into 4 groups each containing 30 animals with equal sexes. Three groups were assigned as the ex-perimental groups and the fourth group was used as control. Met-Zn (chelating zinc) and ZnSO4·H2O (inorganic zinc) were added to the diet of the experimental groups the ratios of 50:20,60:10,70:0 mg/kg.70 mg/kg ZnSO4·H2O was added to the diet of control group (the data was zinc content). The experiments continued 55 days. The growth performance and nu- trient digestibility, blood biochemical indexes and fur quality of raccoon dogs in furring period were studied through the feeding experiments. Results indicated that:(1) Added chelating zinc to the diet could increase the daily weight gain of the raccoon dogs in furring period. When added 60 mg/kg and 70 mg/kg chelating zinc, the daily weight gain was significantly higher than the control group (P< 0.05). And the daily weight gain was highest when added 70 mg/kg chelating zinc.(2) No significant difference was observed for the apparent digestibility of crude protein between all experimental groups and the control group (P> 0.05). However, the apparent di-gestibility of crude fat was significantly higher in experimental groups than in the control group (P< 0.05). With the increase of the chelating zinc, the apparent digestibility of crude fat also increased.(3) Added chelating zinc to the diet could significantly increase the feed conversion rate of the raccoon dogs in furring period (P< 0.01).(4) The concentration of serum Zn and ALP of the control group was significantly lower than all the experimental groups (P< 0.01). With the increase of the chelating zinc, serum Zn and ALP’s concentration also increased.(5) Different contents of the chelating zinc could significantly increased on the weight of skin per unit area compare with control group (P< 0.01), with the increase of the chelating zinc, the weight of skin per unit area also increased.(6) With the increase of the chelating zinc, the length of guard hair increased, but the difference was not significant (P> 0.05); and the diameter of guard hair decreased significantly (P< 0.05), the length and diameter of under fur increased significantly (P< 0.05).All the experiment results indicated that adding chelating zinc could improve the daily weight gain, nutrients digestibility, feed conversion rate and fur quality to the raccoon dogs al-though, the guard hair tends to become thinner (P< 0.05). The dosage of additive chelating zinc at 70 mg/kg (Total content of zinc is 112.89 mg/kg) might lead to slight curing of guard hair. Therefore, we recommend to add chelating zinc at dosage below 60 mg/kg (Total content of zinc is 112.89 mg/kg) in practice.