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Effect of Zinc Deficiency during Lactation on Postnatal Growth and Development of Rats^1,2,

Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, California 95616

The effect of dietary zinc deficiency on the lactating female rat and on the postnatal development of the suckling young was investigated. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were fed either a zinc-supplemented (100 ppm zinc) or a zinc-deficient (0.4 ppm zinc) purified diet throughout lactation. Inanition controls received the zinc-supplemented diet in amounts restricted to the mean daily food intake of the deficient animals. Zinc deficiency during lactation rapidly reduced maternal blood plasma zinc concentration and caused an impairment in milk production which was specifically due to the lack of zinc rather than to inanition. In addition, the milk produced was lower in zinc content than that of either ad libitum or restricted-fed controls. As a consequence, pups suckling zinc-deficient lactating females received half the amount of zinc that the control pups received on the basis of body weight. Thus they became zinc-deficient with reduced plasma zinc concentration, symptoms of zinc deficiency, impaired growth, and increased mortality.

KEY WORDS: • zinc • lactation • postnatal development • milk

¹ Supported in part by Public Health Service Research Grant no. HD-01743 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

² A partial presentation of these data was made at the Annual Meeting of the American Institute of Nutrition in Chicago. Ill., April, 1971, Federation Proc. 30, 643 (abstr.).

³ National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Fellow. Current address: Department of Home Economics, Andrews University, Berrlen Springs, Mich. 49103.

Manuscript received 7 November 1973.

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