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Ferrous Carbonates as Sources of Iron for Weanling Pigs and Rats¹

University of Florida,^,4 Gainesville 32603

Abstract

Experiments were conducted with 100 weanling pigs and 250 weanling rats to compare the biological availability of iron from feed-grade ferrous carbonates to that of reagent-grade ferrous sulfate. Pigs were weaned at 14 to 21 days and fed an iron-deficient diet for 14 days before assignment to supplementation treatments of 42 days duration. In one of two experiments with swine, no significant differences in growth, hemoglobin, or hematocrit were found between pigs fed ferrous sulfate and those fed the ferrous carbonate ore most soluble in 0.4% hydrochloric acid. The two carbonate ores which contained the highest percentage of iron soluble in either 0.4% hydrochloric acid or 2.0% citric acid produced higher hemoglobin and hematocrit values than the basal diet, indicating that certain ferrous carbonate ores may have value as iron sources for baby pigs. The consistency between response criteria in swine and solubility rankings suggests that solubility tests may be useful indicators of the biological availability of iron in different inorganic sources. In the studies with rats, ferrous carbonate ores gave consistently lower hemoglobin responses than were obtained with ferrous sulfate.

¹ Florida Agricultural Experiment Station Journal Series No. 4845.

² Present address, Maple Leaf Mills Ltd., Toronto, Canada.

³ The authors wish to acknowledge the Calcium Carbonate Company, Quincy, Illinois for funds in support of this study and International Minerals and Chemical Corp., Libertyville, Illinois for conducting the X-ray diffraction studies. Dr. B. G. Harmon, University of Illinois and Dr. V. W. Hays, University of Kentucky are acknowledged for supplying samples of ferrous carbonates.

⁴ Department of Animal Science.

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