Use of oral zinc at high concentration during the post-weaning period of piglets

The aim was to assess the effect of high dietary zinc supplementation on growth and health parameters of weaned piglets. Ninety castrated male pigs of 28 days of age were assigned to three different groups of 30 each: Group Zn21, was fed with a diet containing 2500 ppm of zinc oxide for the first 21 days (D0-D21) and without zinc supplementation for the following 35 days (D22-D56); Zn56 was fed with a diet containing 2500 ppm of zinc oxide from D0 to D56; the control group (C) was fed without zinc supplementation throughout the experiment. All the groups were fed on ad libitum basis. Each pig was individually weighed at D0, D21 and D56