March 9, 2011

Animine presents new zinc oxide supply for piglets at VIV Asia

Animine, a new French trace minerals company is launching a new supply of zinc oxide (ZnO) at VIV Asia in Bangkok, Thailand.

The company, which is based in Sillingy, France, was founded a year ago and launched the product in November 2010. It is a homogenous form of zinc oxide with an increased surface area and more importantly greater porosity (as much as ten times higher than normal ZnO).

This makes it even more effective than nanozinc as it further increases the possible sites of interaction among the molecules of ZnO, the animal, and microbes in the gastrointestinal tract.

Usually, normal zinc oxide is derived from recycled zinc (because of this it is often full of contaminant metals), and undergoes a high heat metallurgic process with vaporisation. In comparison, the new product is made from high-quality zinc that undergoes a hydrometallurgic process without vaporisation. The low temperature in the process does not diminish the antimicrobial qualities of zinc oxide.

As a result, the new, high porosity ZnO product has better purity and promises much lower concentration in unwanted substances like heavy metals lead and cadmium.

Additionally, its flowing characteristics are better than that of normal zinc oxide, which is typically dusty and compact. The ZnO source is fine granular, with 75% of its constituent parts between 100 and 200 microns, assuring lowered risk of cross contamination and better distribution in premixes.

Lower doses are needed to show same result as higher doses of typical zinc oxide.

Under practical conditions, the product fed at 150 ppm (as part of a normal premix) has shown equal performance to standard zinc oxide at 3 kg/MT and antibiotics (colistine/ lincomycine/ spectinomycine). In a commercial experiment, 72 piglets weaned at 28 days old were given the above three regimens until 42 days of age, with four replicates per treatment.

At the end of the experiment, it was clear that in all three treatment groups growth performance and diarrhoea score were almost the same, with pigs going through high growth and having superior health.

In non EU countries where dietary Zn is not capped, and in poorer hygiene conditions, the high porosity ZnO dose can be doubled.