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Effect of Copper Sulfate, Copper Sulfide and Sodium Sulfide on Performance and Copper Stores of Pigs.^{1 ,2,}

University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506

Abstract

Three experiments involving 288 growing-finishing swine were conducted to evaluate the interactive effects of copper sulfate and sodium sulfide and the effects of copper sulfide on performance, hematology and copper content of kidney and liver tissue.

The addition of copper as copper sulfate at levels of 125 to 250 ppm resulted in a 3% improvement in growth rate (725 vs 704 g/day) and a 2.9% improvement in feed/gain (3.01 vs 3.10) averaged across the three experiments. Hemoglobin and hematocrit levels were unaffected by dietary copper level. Kidney copper concentration increased slightly with added dietary copper. However, copper content of the liver was increased by approximately two-, five-and 20-fold when 125, 188 and 250 ppm of copper as copper sulfate were fed. Inclusion of sodium sulfide suppressed the uptake of liver copper in pigs fed high-copper diets. There was no evidence that sulfide at levels of 225 to 500 ppm interfered with the growth-promoting effects of copper

Copper sulfide did not improve performance nor was there an increase in liver copper level in pigs fed this form of copper.

¹ Journal Paper No. 77-5-114 of the University of Kentucky Agriculture Experiment Station, Department of Animal Sciences, Lexington 40506.

² This research was supported in part by a grant-in-aid from Phelps Dodge Refining Corporation, New York 10001.

³ Present address: West Frankfort, IL.