Zinc and Reproduction: Effects of Deficiency on Foetal and Postnatal Development

Abstract

The first evidence that zinc was an essential nutrient for animals was provided by Todd et al. in 1934 using the rat as an experimental model. Twenty-five years later, Turk et al. (1959) showed that chicks hatched from dams fed a zinc-deficient diet were weak and died within 4 d. Subsequent studies in the chick demonstrated that severe maternal zinc deficiency resulted in skeletal defects in the offspring, including agenesis of the limbs, skull and beak deformities, dorsal curvature of the spine and shortened and fused vertebrae. Other anomalies included brain abnormalities, microphthalmia, micromelia and herniation of viscera (Blamberg et al. 1960; Keinholz et al. 1961).