Feed & Additive Magazine Issue 4 May 2021

SPECIAL STORY FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE May 2021 41 area with gut bacteria and the high porosity ampli- fies the antibacterial activity of this potentiated zinc oxide (see figure 1). This potentiated zinc source is already represented widely on worldwide market and showed its efficacy to replace partially or totally pharmacological dose of ZnO. The use of ZnO at pharmacological levels also answers the challenge of nutritional supply and bioavailability. Although the Zn requirements are established, the complexity of the period after weaning seems not to supply adequate amount of Zn. It is questionable if the require- ments for this mineral should be defined as mg /day instead of mg /kg diet, so the feed intake in this early stage does not compromise the Zn supply. Among the different sources used to sup- ply in the diets, ZnO is the most known one. A recent study using sources of ZnO with dif- ferent physicochemical properties was performed at INRA, France (Cardoso et al., PSA 2020) with the objective to determine their bioavailabili- ty. The study confirmed what previous studies have demonstrated; that ZnO bioavailability is variable and highly connected to the properties of the different sources. Additionally, the ex- periment also showed that when compared to ZnSO4, ZnO can have a lower, similar, but also superior bioavailability depending on the source of ZnO (see figure 2) CONCLUSION Misleading market in- formation might suggest that all ZnO sources will be banned in EU, this is not correct and only its veterinary use is under le- gal constraints. Nutrition- al supplementation of zinc under oxide form remains authorized, recommended and one of the top sourc- es used by formulators nowadays. Any strategy re- placing pharmacological ZnO should integrate a zinc dimension that cannot be avoided. This zinc appropriate supply can sometimes kill 2 birds with 1 stone as certain European sources of ZnO also provide high antibacterial properties when supple- mented at 150ppm Zn (according to regulation 2016 / 1095). Figure 2: Relative bioavailability (%) of different sources of ZnO compared to ZnSO4 ZINC SOURCE IN POST WEANING: HAVE THE RIGHT CARDS TO PLAY www.animine.eu Precision minerals