Effects of Different Sources of Dietary Chromium on Growth, Blood Profiles and Carcass Traits in Growing-Finishing Pigs (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Dietary chromium (Cr) is known to influence protein synthesis and nucleic and lipid metabolism in the body of animals, and to be partially responsible for blood cholesterol regulation (Schroeder, 1968; Pi-Sunyer et al., 1984; Mertz, 1993; Ohh and Lee, 2005). However, the efficiency of Cr absorption and utilization is known to be relatively limited and its mechanism is not yet clear. Absorption and utilization of Cr was proposed to be associated with its component organic molecule (Power and Horgan, 2000). In an earlier study of Chen et al. (1973), oxalate was reported to enhance the absorption of chromium in rats. Since then, other synthetic organic forms, such as chromium nicotinate and chromium picolinate (CrPic) have been introduced as readily available sources of chromium. Recently, chromium methionine (Korea patent, 0543107), an amino acid chelate was also introduced to the market. However, there has not been much information with regard to not only the bio-efficacy of the several chromium sources but also appropriate criteria to evaluate the bioefficacy.