Effect of dietary copper source (inorganic vs. chelated) on immune response, mineral status, and fecal mineral excretion in nursery piglets

This experiment was conducted to determine the effect of dietary supplementation with copper sulfate and cupreous N-carbamylglutamate chelate (NCG-Cu) on the growth performance, serum biochemical profile, immune response, tissue mineral distributions, and fecal excretion of minerals in nursery piglets. Eighteen healthy nursery piglets were randomly assigned to 3 dietary treatments consisting of no copper in either form (control), 650 g/t copper sulfate (650 g/t Cu) or 320 g/t NCG-Cu (320 g/t NCG-Cu) for 35 days. Pigs fed the 320 g/t NCG-Cu diet showed a significantly (P