• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2003

An experiment was conducted to study the effects of the dietary Cu sources on the performance of the weanling pigs. Forty-eight, 24 in each sex, 4 weeks old pigs were assigned to four treatments; control, methionine-Cu chelate, chitosan-Cu chelate or yeast-Cu chelate. Control diet contained 136ppm Cu to which additional 100ppm Cu in different chelated form was added to the respective treatment. Individual pig weight and feed intake of each pen were recorded weekly for 5 weeks. Average daily feed intakes(ADFI), average daily gains(ADG) and ADFI/ADG were not significantly different among treatments. Nutrient availability was not also significantly affected by treatments. Serum triglyceride concentration of chitosan-Cu treatment was significantly lower than those of methionine-Cu and yeast-Cu treatments but was not significantly different from that of the control. Serum cholesterol concentration of yeast-Cu was significantly lower than those of the control and methionine-Cu but was not significantly different from that of chitosan-Cu treatment. Serum HDL-cholesterol concentration was not significantly affected by treatments. Serum IgG concentrations of all copper treatments were significantly lower than that of the control. It was concluded that Cu-chelates supplemented to the basal diet (136ppm Cu) by the level of 100ppm Cu did not significantly affect growth performance of weaning pigs. However, serum parameters of cholesterol, cholesterol and IgG were significantly affected by the treatments.