Abstract Copper (Cu) is an essential mineral for swine involved in maintaining physiological processes such as growth, maintenance, and reproduction (Espinosa et al, 2021). Various sources can be included in diets in order to meet copper nutrient requirements. Tribasic copper chloride (TBCC) is an ingredient that can be utilized in swine diets at nutritional and pharmacological levels to support growth performance. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of TBCC level and feeding duration on growth performance of growing-finishing pigs. A total of 1,112 mixed sex pigs (DNA 600 × 241, 21.5 ± 0.56kg) were used in a 107-d grow-finish study. Pigs were placed in 44 pens at the South Dakota State University commercial wean-to-finish research facility to investigate the effect of TBCC level and feeding duration on growth performance. Pens were stocked with 25 ± 1 pigs, with approximately equal distribution of barrows and gilts. Dietary treatments were randomly allotted to pens within block by location. Each dietary treatment was replicated 11 times. The lmer function of R was used a randomized complete block design with pen serving as the experimental unit and the statistical model considered fixed effects of dietary treatment. Treatments included: the negative control at 15ppm, pharmacological Cu (155ppm) until approximately 54kg, pharmacological Cu (125-155ppm) until approximately 90kg, and pharmacological Cu (125-155ppm) fed until market. Feeding pharmacological levels of Cu improved BW (P = 0.045) at 73 days prior to marketing, but this did not extend throughout the remainder of the trial. From d 107 to 73 prior to marketing, feeding pharmacological Cu increased ADG (P = 0.016) and tended to increase ADFI (P = 0.056). Overall (d 0-107), ADFI tended to increase when pharmacological Cu was provided (P = 0.075), but ADG and G:F were not affected. In conclusion, the results from this trial suggest that supplementing Cu during the late grower phase (21-51 kg) has a short-term effect on growth performance. In this study, adding pharmacological Cu to the diet showed no overall effects on ADG, G:F, ADFI or BW.
Pohlen et al. (Wed,) studied this question.