Use of copper-calcium sulphate as animal feed additive

Abstract

Provided is a method of using a copper-calcium sulphate as an animal feed additive. When used in animal breeding, a low dose of the copper-calcium sulphate can achieve the effect of that high dosage of copper sulphate achieve in the promotion of animal growth, and thus the copper-calcium sulphate can be used as an animal basic nutritional supplement to substitute low-copper preparations in the breeding of poultry, livestock or aquatic animals. Copper-calcium sulphate, used as a novel, efficient and safe feed additive in the feed processing industry and animal breeding industry, can reduce the dosage of copper ion by nearly 50-70% to achieve the same production performance, can significantly reduce the use of copper in animal husbandry, and can reduce the production costs, reduce the toxic side effects of a high level of copper, and reduce the environmental pollution, thus the copper-calcium sulphate is a copper compound with unique advantages.

Claims

1. A method of using copper-calcium sulphate as an animal feed additive, comprising a step of adding the copper-calcium sulphate to animal feed, wherein a concentration of the copper-calcium sulphate in the animal feed is 10 to 200 ppm calculated based on copper ion content.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the copper-calcium sulphate is used as an animal basic nutritional supplement or an animal growth promoter.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the copper-calcium sulphate is used as the animal basic nutritional supplement to remedy copper deficiency.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the copper-calcium sulphate is used as the animal growth promoter as a substitute for copper sulphate.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the animal feed is for poultry, livestock or aquatic animal.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the poultry is a chicken, turkey, guinea fowl, duck, goose, pigeon or quail in all growth stages.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the livestock is a pig, cattle, sheep, horse, rabbit, dog, cat or donkey in all growth stages.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein the aquatic animal is a fish, shrimp or crab.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the animal feed is for poultry, livestock or aquatic animal.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the poultry is a chicken, turkey, guinea fowl, duck, goose, pigeon or quail in all growth stages.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the livestock is a pig, cattle, sheep, horse, rabbit, dog, cat or donkey in all growth stages.

12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the aquatic animal is a fish, shrimp or crab.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

(1) The following embodiments are explanation for the present invention, but not used for limiting the present invention.

(2) Sources of the samples are listed in Tab. 1.

(3) TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Source of the samples used in the embodiment Sample Quality Producer Copper-calcium sulphate Purity of 98% Guangzhou Insighter Biotechnology Co., Ltd Copper sulfate Feed grade Zhuzhou Xinxiang Feed pentahydrate Additive Co., Ltd. Copper chloride hydroxide Feed grade Zhengzhou Yifa Chemical Product Co., Ltd. Calcium sulphate Feed grade Jingmen Leixin Gypsum Product Co., Ltd.

Embodiment 1

(4) Application Effects of Copper-Calcium Sulphate of Various Concentrations in Piglet Feed

(5) 160 52-day-aged Duroc×Landrace×Large White piglets similar in weight were divided into twelve groups after leaving the nursery, 20 piglets in each group as shown in Tab. 2. The piglets were given ad libitum access to feed and water, wherein each group was provided with complete formula feed without high-copper level in combination with different kinds or concentrations of copper compounds. Weight gains and feed conversions for each group were recorded during a 28-day experiment. Results are as shown in Tab. 2. As can be seen from Tab. 2, the addition of copper-calcium sulphate in feed (calculated based on copper content, the same below) can improve the weight gains and the feed conversion ratios, wherein the improvements of production are positively correlated with the concentration, and 100 ppm of copper-calcium sulphate shows improvements similar to those of 200 ppm of copper sulphate.

(6) TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Growth promoting effects of different concentrations of copper-calcium sulphate on piglets Average Average Concen- daily feed Number of tration weight conversion Group animals Additive (ppm) gain (g) ratio 1 20 — — 460 2.109 2 20 Copper chloride 30 467 2.076 hydroxide 3 20 Copper chloride 200 485 2.055 hydroxide 4 20 Copper sulfate 30 465 2.085 pentahydrate 5 20 Copper sulfate 200 477 2.045 pentahydrate 6 20 Copper-calcium 10 462 2.111 sulphate 7 20 Copper-calcium 20 471 2.128 sulphate 8 20 Copper-calcium 30 473 2.078 sulphate 9 20 Copper-calcium 100 478 2.041 sulphate 10 20 Copper-calcium 200 495 2.012 sulphate 11 20 Calcium sulphate 150 461 2.116 12 20 Copper sulfate 200 + 150 478 2.046 pentahydrate + calcium sulphate Note: The concentrations of copper additives are calculated based on copper ion; the concentrations of calcium sulphate are calculated based on calcium ion; group 1 served as a control blank without any additive; the feed of group 12 was added with a mixture of copper sulfate pentahydrate and calcium sulphate in the specified concentrations.

Embodiment 2

(7) Application Effects of Copper-Calcium Sulphate in Feed for Grower Pigs

(8) 80 83-day-aged Duroc×Landrace×Large White pigs similar in weight were divided into four groups as shown in Tab. 3, 20 pigs in each group. The pigs were given ad libitum access to feed and water, wherein each group was provided with complete formula feed without high-copper level in combination with different kinds or concentrations of copper compounds. Weight gains and feed conversions for each group were recorded during a 28-day experiment. Results are as shown in Tab. 3. As can be seen from Tab. 3, an addition of 15 ppm of copper-calcium sulphate showed improvements of production on the pigs significantly higher than those of copper sulphate and copper chloride hydroxide in the same concentration, and similar to those of 150 ppm of copper sulphate. Moreover, the 150 ppm of copper-calcium sulphate (calculated based on copper content, the same below) showed a production greatly better than that of 150 ppm of copper sulphate.

(9) TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 Application effects of copper-calcium sulphate in feed for grower pigs Average Concen- daily Feed Number of tration weight conversion Group animals Additive (ppm) gain (g) ratio 1 20 Control blank — 568 2.402 2 20 Copper chloride 150 587 2.324 hydroxide 3 20 Copper sulfate 150 583 2.340 pentahydrate 4 20 Copper-calcium 150 598 2.281 sulphate Note: The concentrations of copper additives are calculated based on copper ion; the control blank group was provided without any copper additive.

Embodiment 3

(10) Application Effects of Copper-Calcium Sulphate in Broiler Feed

(11) 700 1-day-aged fast-growing yellow feather broilers (female) were divided according to Tab. 4, 100 broilers in each group. The broilers were given ad libitum access to feed and water, wherein each group was provided with complete formula feed without high-copper level in combination with different kinds or concentrations of copper compounds. Weight gains and feed conversions for each group were recorded during a 21-day experiment. Results are as shown in Tab. 4. As can be seen from Tab. 4, the addition of 10 to 40 ppm of copper-calcium sulphate (calculated based on copper content, the same below) can significantly improve the weight gains and the feed conversion ratios, wherein the improvements of production are concentration-dependent, and 30 ppm of copper-calcium sulphate shows improvements on broilers similar to those of 110 ppm of copper sulphate pentahydrate.

(12) TABLE-US-00004 TABLE 4 Growth promoting effects of different concentrations of copper-calcium sulphate on broilers Average Concen- daily Feed Number of tration weight conversion Group animals Additive (ppm) gain (g) ratio 1 100 Copper sulfate 10 18.6 1.932 pentahydrate 2 100 Copper sulfate 60 19.2 1.872 pentahydrate 3 100 Copper sulfate 110 23.4 1.736 pentahydrate 4 100 Copper-calcium 10 19.1 1.766 sulphate 5 100 Copper-calcium 20 22.8 1.716 sulphate 6 100 Copper-calcium 30 24.2 1.715 sulphate 7 100 Copper-calcium 40 25.1 1.708 sulphate Note: The concentrations of copper additives are calculated based on copper ion.

Embodiment 4

(13) Application of Copper-Calcium Sulphate in Aquatic Animal Feed

(14) (1) Test Materials

(15) Test fishes: The fishes used in this embodiment were underyearling black carps, provided by Dafeng Breeding Farm in Huizhou City, Guangdong Province. The healthy and lively fishes, which were identical in size, had been bred in big net cages (4×2×1.5 m.sup.3) for 4 weeks prior to experiment. The experiment was conducted with small floating net cages (1.1×1.1×1.1 m.sup.3), and each net cage was provided with an aerator and aerated 24 hours every day. The small net cages were arranged in a 3500 m.sup.2 pond along with temporary rearing net cages. The water depth in the pond was about 1.5 meters, and the water in the pond is fully aerated from the bottom. During the test, 336 black carps which had been fasted for 1 day were randomly divided into seven groups, four duplicates for each group, and twelve fishes for each duplicate. The fishes were weighed as a whole before they were randomly assigned into 28 net cages and respectively fed with different test feeds.

(16) Test feeds: The test feeds were prepared according to Tab. 5, and added with different concentrations of copper preparations (calculated based on copper ion) according to Tab. 6 respectively for different group. After super-finely crushed, all feed materials were made into floating expanded pellet feeds with a particle size of 3 mm by a pellet-fodder expander provided by Jiangsu Muyang Company with a production temperature of 130° C., and then coated with 3% soybean oil by an oil spraying device. The feeds were then sealed and preserved for later use.

(17) TABLE-US-00005 TABLE 5 Feed formula and ingredients (% wt.) Content Content Material (%) Material (%) Fish meal 9.0 Soybean oil 3.0 Casing powder 3.0 Phospholipid rapeseed meal 9.0 Bean pulp 12.0 Wheat gluten 4.0 Rapeseed meal 12.0 Blood cell meal 2.0 Monosodium glutamate 3.0 Vc- phosphate ester 0.1 protein Wheat middlings 12.6 Calcium dihydrogen 1.8 phosphate Flour 17.0 Choline chloride 0.2 Bentonite 0.70 Multivitamins 0.1

(18) (2) Test Method

(19) Test management: Ration restriction was adopted and the ration was adjusted weekly. The feeding level was identical between the groups (based on the initial weights). The fishes were fed twice (7:30 and 15:00) every day for 8 weeks. During the test, the water quality was monitored regularly, maintaining a water temperature of 26.88±3.08° C., a dissolved oxygen value of more than 5.0 mg O L.sup.−1, a pH value of 7.8, an ammoniacal nitrogen value of less than 0.5 mg N L.sup.−1, and a nitrite nitrogen value of less than 0.05 mg N L.sup.−1.

(20) Parameters recording and calculating: During the test, the fishes in each net cage were weighed as a whole after fasted for 1 day, and the average weight gains (g) and feed conversion ratios were calculated, according to the following formulars.
Average weight gain (g)=average final weight−average initial weight
Feed conversion ratio=feed intake/fish weight gain

(21) (3) Test Result

(22) Test result of growth promoting effects of copper-calcium sulphate on fish is as shown in Tab. 6. The result shows that, an addition of 15 to 60 ppm of copper-calcium sulphate (calculated based on copper content, the same below) can significantly improve the daily weight gains and feed conversion ratios of the test fishes, and the production improvements are apparently concentration-dependent. 30 ppm of copper-calcium sulphate can achieve production improvements on the fishes similar to those of 60 ppm of copper sulfate pentahydrate.

(23) TABLE-US-00006 TABLE 6 Application effects of different concentrations of copper-calcium sulphate in aquatic animal feed Average Concen- daily Feed Number of tration weight conversion Group animals Additive (ppm) gain (g) ratio 1 48 Control — 335 1.490 2 48 Copper sulfate 15 347 1.438 pentahydrate 3 48 Copper sulfate 30 350 1.426 pentahydrate 4 48 Copper sulfate 60 360 1.386 pentahydrate 5 48 Copper-calcium 15 350 1.426 sulphate 6 48 Copper-calcium 30 364 1.371 sulphate 7 48 Copper-calcium 60 372 1.342 sulphate Note: The concentrations of copper additives are calculated based on copper ion; the control blank group was provided without any copper additive.

(24) The above embodiments are preferred embodiments but not to limit the present invention. Any other amendment, modification, replacement, combination or simplification that based on the principal of the present invention shall be regarded as an equivalent embodiment and thereby fall within the scope of the present invention.