The Effect of Zinc Gluconate Supplementation on the Intestinal Microbiota and Growth Performance of Yorkshire Pigs

作者：Yan Zhu, Jiawei Lu, Jingwen Fan, Linyuan Shen, Li Zhu, Ya Tan, Yihui Liu, Mailin Gan · 发表于：Animals · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.3390/ani16111607 · 研究领域：Gut microbiota and health、Animal Nutrition and Physiology、Trace Elements in Health

The gut microbiota significantly influences the healthy growth and development of animals. However, the alterations in the gut microbiota of Yorkshire Pigs mediated by specific trace elements, such as zinc gluconate, and their associations with growth phenotypes remain to be elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary zinc gluconate supplementation on the gut microecology of Yorkshire Pigs. Twenty Yorkshire Pigs were randomly divided into a control group (NC) and a treatment group (GZn, fed a diet containing 0.1% zinc gluconate) for 52 days. The diversity, composition, and potential functions of fecal microbiota were evaluated via 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed that dietary zinc gluconate supplementation altered the gut microbiota of Yorkshire pigs, evidenced by distinct community clustering in beta diversity and increased alpha diversity (species richness and diversity). In terms of the composition of taxonomic units, a significant beneficial succession occurred among the core bacterial genera: potential probiotic genera (such as Clostridia_UCG-014) that were significantly enriched, while genera associated with negative correlations with growth traits or potentially pathogenic (such as Streptococcus and Escherichia-Shigella) were effectively suppressed. Although Firmicutes and Bacteroidota remained the shared dominant phyla, the abundance of core genera underwent a significant succession. Spearman correlation analysis revealed that potent...