Zinc is essential for healthy animals. Zinc is needed for immunity, reproduction, skin, hoof, and footpad integrity, muscle development, milk production, and eggshell quality. Moreover, the need for zinc increases during pregnancy and lactation and during stress such as extreme heat, feed changes, and relocation. Zinc is a critical component needed for cell membrane repair. As such, requirements are increased after tissue or skin damage and during wound healing.
Despite zinc’s importance, it is often supplemented as inorganic zinc such as zinc oxide or sulfate. However, inorganic zinc is easily separated in the gut allowing for the formation of insoluble complexes with other free metals or other dietary components. This results in unabsorbed zinc being excreted in the feces, potentially contaminating the environment.
Organically bound zinc is a zinc bound to a single amino acid or amino acids from hydrolyzed soy protein. Organic zinc has greater binding strength and is better protected from antagonistic effects in the gut. The result is zinc that is better absorbed and metabolized, with a direct impact on animal health and productivity.
B.I.O.Key® Zinc is an organic form of zinc bound to amino acids from hydrolyzed soy protein. B.I.O.Key® Zinc has several advantages over inorganic zinc. The zinc-amino acid complex provides superior stability at the low pH found in the gastrointestinal tract. This protects and reduces the amount of metal that becomes unbound to form insoluble complexes with other elements in the gut and reduces antagonistic effects between mineral transport. Effective transport to the intestinal wall and beneficial absorption rates leads to higher bioavailability. Using B.I.O.Key® Zinc in premixes means that zinc is always available during times of increased demand or stress.
Zinc is only a small part of the total feed—but it makes all the difference! Zinc can only provide nutritional value if it is absorbed. B.I.O.Key® Zinc has been successfully used in high-performance animal feeds with proven superior absorption over inorganic zinc. B.I.O.Key® Zinc is an easy choice!