Journal Article

Effects of Zinc Glycinate on Productive and Reproductive Performance, Zinc Concentration and Antioxidant Status in Broiler Breeders

Wang, Yong-Xia, Xiao, Xue, Li, Kai-Xuan, Wang, Qian, Wang, Jiang-Shui, Zhang, Ling, Zhan, Xiu-An, Guo, Tian-Yu

2017

Overview

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of zinc glycinate (Zn-Gly) supplementation as an alternative for zinc sulphate (ZnSO 4 ) on productive and reproductive performance, zinc (Zn) concentration and antioxidant status in broiler breeders. Six hundred 39-week-old Lingnan Yellow broiler breeders were randomly assigned to 6 groups consisting of 4 replicates with 25 birds each. Breeders were fed a basal diet (control group, 24 mg Zn/kg diet), basal diet supplemented with 80 mg Zn/kg diet from ZnSO 4 or basal diet supplemented with 20, 40, 60 and 80 mg Zn/kg diet from Zn-Gly. The experiment lasted for 8 weeks after a 4-week pre-test with the basal diet, respectively. Results showed that Zn supplementation, regardless of sources, improved ( P  < 0.05) the feed conversion ratio (kilogram of feed/kilogram of egg) and decreased broken egg rate, and elevated ( P  < 0.05) the qualified chick rate. Compared with the ZnSO 4 group, the 80 mg Zn/kg Zn-Gly group significantly increased ( P  < 0.05) average egg weight, fertility, hatchability and qualified chick rate, whereas it decreased ( P  < 0.05) broken egg rate. The Zn concentrations in liver and muscle were significantly higher ( P  < 0.05) in 80 mg Zn/kg Zn-Gly group than that in ZnSO 4 group. Compared with ZnSO 4 group, 80 mg Zn/kg Zn-Gly group significantly elevated ( P  < 0.05) the mRNA abundances of metallothionein (MT) and copper-zinc superoxide (Cu-Zn SOD), as well as the Cu-Zn SOD activity and MT concentration in liver. Moreover, the 80 mg Zn/kg Zn-Gly group had higher ( P  < 0.05) serum T-SOD and Cu-Zn SOD activities than that in the ZnSO 4 group. This study indicated that supplementation of Zn in basal diet improved productive and reproductive performance, Zn concentration and antioxidant status in broiler breeders, and the 80 mg Zn/kg from Zn-Gly was the optimum choice for broiler breeders compared with other levels of Zn from Zn-Gly and 80 mg/kg Zn from ZnSO 4 .

• Publisher: Springer US,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Animal reproduction / Animals / Antioxidants / Antioxidants - metabolism / Biochemistry / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biotechnology / blood serum / broiler breeders / Chickens - metabolism / chicks / Conversion ratio / Copper / Diet / Dietary minerals / Dietary supplements / egg weight / eggs / Feed conversion / Female / Fertility / Glycine - analogs & derivatives / Glycine - pharmacokinetics / Glycine - pharmacology / Hatchability / Life Sciences / Liver / Liver - metabolism / Male / messenger RNA / Metallothionein / Metallothioneins / mRNA / Muscle, Skeletal - metabolism / muscles / Nutrition / Oncology / Poultry / Reproduction / Reproduction - drug effects / reproductive performance / Superoxide / superoxide dismutase / Zinc / zinc sulfate