Trend analysis of copper and zinc in animal feed

The EC has introduced maximum inclusion levels of copper and zinc salts in animal diets from 1970 onwards and reduced these levels in recent years. In this report historical values are used to give insight into trends in levels of copper and zinc in compound feeds for animals in the Netherlands. The results of these analyses will enable the nVWA (Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority) to develop a more risk-directed sampling strategy in the National Feed Monitoring program. Over 2000 feed samples are analysed for this report. The data for this analysis are from the period between 2001 and 2009. The copper and zinc data-set contains mostly feeds for piglets, (older) pigs, sheep and to a lesser extent bovine and other species