Copper bioavailability, blood parameters, and nutrient balance in mink1

Abstract

A 3 × 3 + 1 factorial experiment was conducted based on a completely randomized design to evaluate the effects of different sources of copper on plasma metabolites, nutrient digestibility, relative copper bioavailability, and retention of some minerals in male mink. Animals in the control group were fed a basal diet, which mainly consisted of corn, fish meal, meat and bone meal, and soybean oil, with no copper supplementation. Mink in the other 9 treatments were fed the basal diet supplemented with Cu from reagent-grade copper sulfate (CuSO4), tribasic copper chloride (TBCC), or copper methionine (CuMet). Copper concentrations of the experimental diets were 50, 100, and 150 mg Cu/kg DM. Blood samples were collected via the toe clip at the end of study (d 42) to determine blood hematology and blood metabolites. A metabolism trial of 4 d was conducted during the last week of experimental feeding. There was a linear (P < 0.01) effect of dose of Cu on plasma Cu concentrations, ceruloplasmin concentration, and Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase activity. A linear response to Cu dose was noted for fat (P < 0.05) digestibility. Supplemental dose of Cu linearly increased (P < 0.05) liver Cu and decreased (P < 0.05) liver Zn level but did not alter liver Fe. The concentration of liver Cu of the mink fed with TBCC and CuMet diets was greater (P< 0.05) than that fed CuSO4. Compared with CuSO4 (100%), relative bioavailability values of TBCC were 104 and 104%, based on serum ceruloplasmin and liver copper, respectively, and relative bioavailability values of CuMet were 130 and 111%. CuMet and TBCC are more bioavailable than CuSO4. In conclusion, the relative bioavailability of CuMet obtained in this study was greater than that of CuSO4 and TBCC. Dose of Cu had an important effect on the regulating ceruloplasmin concentration, Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase activity, and the digestion of dietary fat in mink.

Application of formulated diets and their effects on nutrient digestibility and reproductive performance of female mink (Neovison vison) during gestation

“…The present study indicated that formulated diets were less digestible than the conventional one, which is comparable to a study carried out on another fur-bearing animal species, the fox (Gugołek et al 2010). The high EE digestibility suggests that mink can utilize fat from different sources, as shown by several researches which applied dry experimental diets on mink (Wu et al 2014(Wu et al , 2015Liu et al 2016). Significant differences were reported for CP digestibility in the present study.…”

Effects of sources and concentrations of zinc on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and fur quality of growing–furring female mink (Mustela vison)1

“…At the end of the experiment, blood samples were taken via the toe clip from mink in the morning after overnight fasting for determining concentrations of serum Zn and serum biochemical parameters. Blood samples were centrifuged at 3,000 × g for 10 min at 4°C, and serum samples were collected and stored at −20°C until being analyzed (Wright and Spears, 2004;Wu et al, 2015c). Liver, pancreas, and the right tibia of each mink were collected at the abattoir and stored at −20°C until being analyzed.…”

Effects of zinc sources and levels on zinc bioavailability, blood parameters, and nutrient balance of male mink (Neovison vison)

“…The source of ZnPOS that consists of α-(1,4)-linked POS units was obtained from the Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the content of Zn in the ZnPOS was 7% by calculation. The basal diet consisted of corn, meat, fish meal and bone meal, and soybean oil, with no added Zn in the premix and was formulated to meet the Zn requirements of growing mink (Wu et al 2015b). Zn content in the control diet was 65.18 mg/kg by analysis.…”

“…The activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), serum alanine transaminase (ALT), glucose (GLU), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and the contents of serum total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), and glutamyltransferase (GGT) were analyzed by an automatic biochemistry analyzer Hitachi 7020 (Hitachi High Technologies, Inc., Japan) with kits being supplied by the Nanjing Jiancheng Bioengineering Research Institute, China. Zn dependent enzyme activities of serum Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase (Cu-ZnSOD) were measured using commercially available assay kits purchased from the Nanjing Jiancheng Bioengineering Research Institute (Wu et al 2015b). The apparent digestibility (AD) of nutrients and energy was calculated as follows (Wu et al 2014):…”