One hundred and forty New Zealand White and Californian 60-day-old male and female rabbits were used in a bioavailability study of copper suplement sources. Three inorganic sources: copper oxide (CO treatment), copper sulfate (SC treatment) and copper carbonate (CC treatment) and one organic source, copper quelate (QC treatment) were tested. Copper concentrations in the diets were 0, 20, 40, 80 or 160 ppm as standard curve. Daily dry matter intake were high in 80SC, 80OC, 80QC, 40SC, 160SC, 0C, 20SC, 40CC and 40OC treatments and low in 160QC, 40QC, 80CC, 160CC and 160OC treatments (R²= 0.1913). Best average daily gain was for 80SC treatment and low value was observed in 80CC treatment (R²=0.2358). Feed conversion was higher for treatments 80CC, 80SC, 0 OC, 20SC and 80QC and lower for 40QC treatment. Copper levels in the liver was higher for 160CC treatment compared to 80SC and 40SC treatments. No difference between sex in Cu deposition was found. New Zealand White rabbits had more copper levels in the liver than Californian rabbits. Using the linear regression technique (slope ratio) it was found the equation: Y Cu= 1,37 + 3,83 x1 + 2,77 x2 + 2,83 x3 + 2,84 x4 + 2,84 x5 (R² = 0,3288).
Rabbit; bioavailability; copper; organic sources; inorganic sources
