SUMMARY
- The ban on therapeutic levels of zinc oxide in piglet diets could result in losses of up to €1,080 million/year for the EU pig industry.
- Estimated losses of €4.15/pig/year due to higher mortality and reduced daily weight gain.
- Replacement of therapeutic levels of zinc oxide with Genex Weaner resulted in an increase in final body weight gain of 11kg (p<0.05) at 49 days.
BACKGROUND
- Zinc is routinely used to control post-weaning scours but has been linked to environmental pollution and antibiotic resistance in some bacteria, such as MRSA. (Yazdankhah et al., 2014)
- The European commission has banned pharmacological levels of zinc (>150ppm) in piglet diets by 2022.
TRIAL DESIGN
Anpario have conducted a trial in weaning piglets at the University of Manitoba, Canada. Piglets were randomly allocated to treatment diets at weaning for a duration of 28 days and balanced for litter origin, gender and weight. Eight days post weaning (29 days of age), piglets were orally challenged with E. coli* (strain K88+). Animals had access to feed and water ad-libitum. Body weight and feed intake was measured weekly and all data was evaluated using ANOVA and Tukey’s t-test for pairwise differences.
| Treatment | Nº Pigs | Reps. | E. coli challenge* | Details |
| CON | 12 | 6 | ü | No additives |
| GEN | 12 | 6 | ü | Genex Weaner 4kg/MT |
| ZnO | 12 | 6 | ü | Zinc Oxide 3kg/MT |
RESULTS
- A significant increase (P<0.05) of 73g/day in ADG was observed when fed Genex vs control and 30g/day vs zinc oxide treatment group.
- A significant (p<0.05) improvement of 2.11kg in final body weight (D28) was achieved in the Genex treatment vs control and 0.7kg more than zinc oxide group. FCR was maintained.
- This study demonstrated that therapeutic zinc oxide can be replaced with Genex Weaner at 4kg/t and provide a performance improvement and an economical benefit.
