A copper deficiency in neonatal pigs induced by a high zinc maternal diet.
Because high levels of dietary zinc are known to reduce copper body stores, the objective was to determine if a high zinc maternal diet could induce a copper deficiency in the newborn pig fed a dried skim milk--glucose--starch diet unsupplemented with copper. The offspring of gilts, which were fed 5000 ppm of zinc, were allowed to nurse until 3 to 5 days of age when they were weaned and placed in individual stainless-steel pens. The dietary treatments were 0, 5 and 10 ppm added copper from copper sulfate. After 14 days, pigs receiving the 0-ppm copper diet weighed significantly less (P less than 0.05) and had reduced hemoglobin, hematocrit and serum copper concentrations and no detectable ceruloplasmin activity. After 5 weeks, the pigs were killed, and tissues were collected. The unsupplemented group had 16.4% of the aortic lysyl oxidase activity of the 5-ppm group. Cytochrome c oxidase activity in the heart and liver, and copper stores in the heart, liver, pancreas and kidney were depressed (P less than 0.05) in unsupplemented pigs compared to those receiving 5 ppm copper. These data demonstrate that it is possible to produce quickly a markedly copper-deficient pig, by using the offspring of sows fed 5000 ppm zinc, and support previous conclusions that the dietary copper requirement of the baby pig is about 5 ppm.
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000378:metabolism*; D003300:Copper / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000378:metabolism; D019327:Copper Sulfate; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D007774:Lactation; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D009929:Organ Size / Q000187:drug effects; D011247:Pregnancy; D008249:Protein-Lysine 6-Oxidase / Q000378:metabolism; D013552:Swine / Q000502:physiology*; D015032:Zinc / Q000378:metabolism / Q000633:toxicity*
D003300:Copper; D008249:Protein-Lysine 6-Oxidase; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV; D015032:Zinc; D019327:Copper Sulfate