More than 300 people gathered in Kliczkow, Poland, for the Digestive Physiology of Pigs (DPP) conference.

During the event, microbiologists, nutritionists and veterinarians from the Institute of Animal Nutrition at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Berlin University, presented findings on the immediate post-weaning colonisation of enterobacteria in piglets fed with different zinc oxide sources including standard feed grade, ZnO, and Animine's HiZox^®. These were administered at doses of 150, 300 and 3000 mg/kg.

Daily fecal samples were used to detect a range of relevant enterobacterial genes via PCR assays.

The development of the Escherichia group (measured by 16S rDNA) showed an increase until four days later after weaning in pigs fed with 150mg/kg zinc diets. This was followed by a drastic decline until the tenth day following weaning.

However, the 300mg/kg (HiZox^®) as well as the 3000mg/kg (ZnO) diets showed an earlier decline two days after weaning, which led to a lower colonisation of the Escherichia group than in other trial groups.

The most prevalent enterobacterial toxin gene was the E. coli estIIb.

Contrary to the colonisation of enterobacteria, a severe decrease of estIIb genes was visible in animals fed the 3000mg/kg diet after the first day following weaning.

A steady decline was observed in all other trial groups. The 300mg/kg (HiZox^®) led to a sharper decrease than the 150mg/kg dosage.