Food Science and Nutrition Department, Veterinary Faculty, Regional Campus of International Excellence Campus Mare Nostrum, University of Murcia, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
Animal Production Department, Veterinary Faculty, Regional Campus of International Excellence Campus Mare Nostrum, University of Murcia, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
Eur J Nutr. 2019 Aug;58(5):1911-1922. doi: 10.1007/s00394-018-1742-x. Epub 2018 Jun 11.
Iron (Fe) deficiency anemia in young children is a global health concern which can be reduced by Fe fortification of foods. Cereal is often one of the first foods given to infants, providing adequate quantities of Fe during weaning. In this work, we have compared iron bioavailability and iron status of four iron sources used to fortify infant cereals, employing piglets as an animal model.
The study was conducted on 36 piglets, 30 of them with induced anemia. From day 28 of life, the weaned piglets were fed with four experimental diets (n = 6) each fortified with 120 mg Fe/kg by ferrous sulfate heptahydrate (FSH), electrolytic iron (EI), ferrous fumarate (FF), or micronized dispersible ferric pyrophosphate (MDFP) for another 21 days. In addition, one group of six anemic piglets fed with the basal diet with no iron added (Control-) and a Control+ group of non-anemic piglets (n = 6) were also studied. Blood indicators of iron status were measured after depletion and during the repletion period. The Fe content in organs, hemoglobin regeneration efficiency, and relative bioavailability (RBV) was also determined.
The Fe salts adequately treated anemia in the piglets, allowing the animals to recover from the anemic state, although EI was less efficient with regard to replenishing Fe stores giving lower concentrations of plasma ferritin and iron in the spleen, liver, lung, and kidney. In addition, the RBV of EI was 88.27% with respect to the reference iron salt (FSH).
Ferrous fumarate and MDFP were equally as bioavailable as the reference salt, and were used significantly better than EI in piglets. These results contribute to extend the evidence-based results for recommending the most suitable fortificant for infant cereals.
儿童缺铁性贫血是一个全球性的健康问题，可以通过食物强化铁来解决。谷物通常是婴儿最早食用的食物之一，可以在断奶期间提供足够的铁。在这项工作中，我们比较了用于强化婴儿谷物的四种铁源的铁生物利用度和铁状态，使用仔猪作为动物模型。
这项研究在 36 头仔猪中进行，其中 30 头仔猪患有诱导性贫血。从出生后第 28 天开始，断奶仔猪开始喂食四种实验性饮食（n=6），每种饮食都用硫酸亚铁七水合物（FSH）、电解铁（EI）、富马酸亚铁（FF）或微粉化分散焦磷酸铁（MDFP）分别强化 120mg Fe/kg，持续 21 天。此外，还研究了一组 6 头喂食不含铁的基础饮食的贫血仔猪（对照-）和一组 6 头非贫血仔猪的对照+组。在铁耗竭和补充期间，测量血液铁状态指标。还测定了器官中的铁含量、血红蛋白再生效率和相对生物利用度（RBV）。
铁盐能够充分治疗仔猪的贫血，使动物从贫血状态中恢复过来，尽管 EI 在补充铁储存方面效率较低，导致血浆铁蛋白和脾脏、肝脏、肺和肾脏中的铁浓度较低。此外，EI 的 RBV 相对于参考铁盐（FSH）为 88.27%。
富马酸亚铁和 MDFP 与参考盐一样具有生物利用度，并且在仔猪中比 EI 更有效地使用。这些结果有助于扩展推荐婴儿谷物最适合强化剂的循证结果。
