Theses and Dissertations

Advisor

Rude, Brian J.

Committee Member

Smith, Trent

Committee Member

Lemley, Caleb O.

Date of Degree

5-16-2025

Original embargo terms

Immediate Worldwide Access

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Agriculture (Animal Science)

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Department

Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences

Abstract

Zinc (Zn) is crucial for many life sustaining processes within the body. Additional Zn is known to be beneficial during certain periods of increased stress. Weaning is one of the most stressful periods of beef calves’ lives. Due to this it was hypothesized that additional zinc in an organic form would increase weight gain and immune response compared to additional zinc in an inorganic form or no added zinc. No differences were found for ADG, Th score, IgG concentration, or mineral concentration among treatments. However, there was a novel and unexpected finding when there was no difference found in preweaning to post weaning concentrations of Immunoglobulin G concentrations. Based on the results of this study, when Zn was supplemented once daily with 2 mg of zinc/kg BW for five weeks it did not influence weight gain or immunity in weaned steers.

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