Hamad Minervino, Antonio HumbertoLópez Alonso, María MartaBarrêto Júnior, Raimundo AlvesRodrigues, Frederico Augusto Mazzocca LopesAraújo, Carolina Akiko Sato Cabral deSousa, Rejane SantosMori, Clara SatsukiMiranda Castañón, Marta InésOliveira, Francisco Leonardo CostaAntonelli, Alexandre CoutinhoLippi Ortolani, Enrico2020-05-082020-05-082018Minervino, A.H.H.; López-Alonso, M.; Barrêto Júnior, R.A.; Rodrigues, F.A.M.L.; Araújo, C.A.S.C.; Sousa, R.S.; Mori, C.S.; Miranda, M.; Oliveira, F.L.C.; Antonelli, A.C.; Ortolani, E.L. Dietary Zinc Supplementation to Prevent Chronic Copper Poisoning in Sheep. Animals 2018, 8, 227http://hdl.handle.net/10347/22140The aim of this study was to evaluate whether zinc (Zn) supplementation protects against hepatic copper (Cu) accumulation in copper-loaded sheep. Forty cross-bred lambs were assigned to five experimental groups. These included the control group (C) and four treatment groups that received Cu and/or Zn supplementation (dry matter (DM) basis) over 14 weeks, as follows: Cu (450 mg Cu/kg); Zn-35 (450 mg Cu + 35 mg Zn/kg); Zn-150 (450 mg Cu + 150 mg Zn/kg); and Zn-300 (450 mg Cu + 300 mg Zn/kg). Blood, liver, and bile samples were obtained for mineral determination by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP–OES). The hepatic metallothionein (MT) concentrations were also determined. At the end of the experiment, hepatic Cu concentrations were higher in all Cu-supplemented groups than in C. Hepatic Cu accumulation was lower in the groups receiving the Zn supplementation than in the Cu group, although the difference was only statistically significant (66%) in the Zn-300 group. The MT concentrations tended to be higher (almost two-fold) in the Zn groups (but were not dose related) than in the C and Cu groups, and they were related to hepatic Zn concentrations. Zn supplementation at 300 mg/kg DM is useful for preventing excessive hepatic Cu accumulation in sheep exposed to high dietary concentrations of Cueng© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Chronic copper poisoningToxicitySheepLiverMetallothioneinjournal article10.3390/ani81202272076-2615open access