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
No additives
GEN 12 6
Genex Weaner 4kg/MT
ZnO 12 6
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.

 

22202901