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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2014, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (1): 283-290.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb20140134

• Orignal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of different sources and levels of zinc on growth performance and tissue zinc accumulation of the young Elco rabbit

REN Zhan-jun1,2, BAI Yan2, LI Fa-di1   

  1. 1.College of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China;
    2.College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest Agriculture & Forestry University, Yangling 712100, China
  • Received:2013-03-20 Online:2014-02-20 Published:2014-02-20

Abstract: To study the effects of different zinc sources and levels on growth performance and tissue zinc accumulation of 1.5 months Elco rabbit, 132 head of 1.5-month Elco rabbit were chosen and randomly divided into 11 groups, each of which were as signed to 4 replicates of 3 rabbit each. Control group was fed based on the diet. Experimental group was respectively fed feed grade ZnSO4, Met-zinc added 70, 105, 140, 175 and 210 mg/kg on the basis of basic diet. Feeding experiment has been run two times, every formal experiment period has 30 days, advanced experiment period has 7 days. Growth performance of rabbit can be increased by zinc added in the diet. The rabbit fed with zinc methionine group significantly higher in average daily gain than in the group fed with zinc sulfate (P<0.01),while the ratio of feed to gain had carcass a significant downtrend than in the group fed with zinc sulfate (respectively P<0.01 and P<0.05). The effects of the two kinds of zinc source on feed intake, organ index and tissue zinc accumulation of the young rabbits had no significant difference (P>0.05). Diet added zinc levels have significant influence on spleen index of the young rabbit (P<0.05). The rabbit spleen index significantly respectively below 105 and 140 mg/kg when they fed with zinc levels in 175 and 210 mg/kg. The interaction effect on spleen index of rabbit between the diet zinc form and level have significant difference (P<0.05), while have extremely significant to liver index, the zinc content of liver or spleen (P<0.01). The zinc added in daily ration can change growth performance of 1.5-month Elco rabbit. The effect of zinc methionine is better than that of zinc sulfate and reduce carcass rate trend is bigger than zinc sulfate. Two kinds of source of zinc in the rabbit body have interaction effect and their metabolism is different. Comprehensive consideration, it is suggested that zinc supplementation is 70-140 mg/kg for 1.5-2.5-month feeding rabbit.

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