Experimental zinc deficiency in guinea-pigs: clinical signs and some haematological studies

Abstract

1. Thirty-three male, weanling guinea-pigs were divided into two groups. One group was fed on a zinc-deficient (ZnD) diet (1.25 mg Zn/kg diet) for 45 d and then divided into two subgroups: subgroup 1 continued on diet ZnD while subgroup 2 was fed on a Zn-repleted diet (100 mg Zn/kg diet) for 15 d. The second group was fed on a Zn-adequate diet (50 mg Zn/kg diet) for 60 d.2. Zn deficiency could be produced within 21 d as evidenced by clinical signs and reduction in serum Zn concentration.3. Clinical signs exhibited were listlessness, scabby lesions on skin near the foot pads, mild alopecia and a reduction in body-weight gain. No effect was observed on food intake.4. Significant decreases in packed cell volume and total leucocyte count from 48 d onwards accompanied by absolute lymphocytopenia and relative neutrophilia were observed.5. Supplementation of Zn in the Zn-repleted group resulted in marked, though incomplete, improvement with regard to serum Zn concentration, clinical signs and haematological changes.

Influence of dietary lysine on the utilization of zinc from zinc sulfate and a zinc-lysine complex by young pigs.

“…A Zn deficiency has been reported to depress the humoral and cellular immune responses in guineapigs (Gupta et al, 1985;Verma et al, 1988). Antibody titer against bovine herpesvirus-1 (IBR) 14 d following vaccination were higher for stressed steers supplemented with Zn-methionine compared with the control and steers supplemented with ZnO (Spears et al, 1991).…”

Zinc

“…Others have identified decreases in the packed cell volume and total leukocyte count accompanied by absolute lymphocytopenia and relative neutrophilia in guinea pigs (Gupta et al 1985). Several studies have demonstrated that zinc deficiency affects vitamin A metabolism, the immune system (Smith et al 1973, Quarterman and Humphries 1979, Sanecki et al 1985 and lipid metabolism (Eder andKirchgessner 1996a,b, 1997).…”

Biology of Zinc and Biological Value of Dietary Organic Zinc Complexes and Chelates

“…Early investigations showed that Zn depletion reduces levels of Zn and Zn metalloenzymes in many tissues and body fluids (Hoekstra et al 1956Prasad et al 1971). More recently, it was found that Zn deficiency causes increased osmotic fragility of red blood cell membranes (Johanning et al 1990) and depression in both the humoral and cellular immune responses (Gupta et al 1985;Verma et al 1988;Spears et al 1991).…”