Effect of dietary nickel on growth, urease activity, blood parameters and tissue mineral concentrations in the neonatal pig.

Day-old pigs were individually fed a low nickel (0.16 ppm) liquid milk-based diet supplemented with either 0, 5 or 25 ppm nickel on a dry matter basis for a 21-day period. At the end of the liquid feeding period, five pigs per treatment were killed, and the remaining five were fed a dried skim milk-based diet (0.12 ppm nickel) with similar levels of added nickel for an additional 28 days. Dietary nickel did not affect animal gain, liver cholesterol, serum protein concentrations or bacterial urease activity in the gastrointestinal tract. The addition of 5 ppm nickel to the basal dry diet reduced ammonia concentrations in the cecum by 33%. Pigs receiving the high level of nickel had decreased serum alkaline phosphatase and increased serum glucose at 49 days, compared to controls. Animals receiving 5 ppm nickel had higher liver iron and zinc concentrations than controls at 21 days but not at 49 days. Control pigs had lower kidney and lung nickel concentrations than animals receiving 5 ppm nickel at 21 days but not at 49 days. Increasing dietary nickel from 5 to 25 ppm resulted in increased concentrations of nickel in serum, kidney, lung, spleen and muscle. These results suggest that 0.12-0.16 ppm nickel is adequate for growth of neonatal pigs fed milk-based diets. However, additional nickel may improve the iron and zinc status of the young pig.