Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-22T22:41:51.887Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Calcium absorption during lactation in sheep with demineralized skeletons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

A. R. Sykes  and
R. A. Dingwall
A. R. Sykes
Affiliation:
Moredun Research Institute, Edinburgh EH17 7JH
R. A. Dingwall
Affiliation:
Moredun Research Institute, Edinburgh EH17 7JH
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Of a group of 24 pregnant Scottish Blackface sheep 12 were killed at the outset and the remainder offered, ad libitum, a poor quality hay. At the end of pregnancy seven more were killed and the remainder offered, during lactation, 3 kg/head/day of a semipurified diet of 64% dry-matter (D.M.) digestibility, and containing 18% crude protein (CP), 1·17% Ca and 0·82% P in the D.M. Milk production was determined at weekly intervals and milk samples obtained at these times for estimation of Ca and P concentrations. These sheep were killed 42 days post-partum. The shorn empty bodies were analysed for fat, protein, Ca and P contents.

The feeding of the poor quality hay caused losses of 76, 37, 15 and 15% of the body contents of fat, protein, Ca and P, respectively, during pregnancy. Despite maintaining a moderate milk yield (1·5 kg/day) the ewes were in positive Ca and P balance during early lactation and had restored the skeleton to its initial mineral content by 42 days post-partum. The rate of absorption of Ca was calculated to have been at least 115 mg/ kg body weight (BW) which is double other estimates in the literature for sheep at this stage of lactation.

These differences are discussed in relation to mechanisms for adaptation of Ca metabolism which have been proposed for other species.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 84 , Issue 2 , April 1975 , pp. 245 - 248
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Agricultural Research Council (1965). The Nutrient Requirements of Farm Livestock. No. 2. Ruminants. London: Agricultural Research Council.Google Scholar
Benzie, D., Boyne, A. W., Dalgarno, A. C., Duckworth, J., Hill, R. & Walker, D. M. (1956). Studies of the skeleton of the sheep. II. The relationship between calcium intake and resorption and repair of the skeleton in pregnancy and lactation. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 48, 175–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braithwaite, G. D. (1974). The effect of changes of dietary calcium concentration on calcium metabolism in sheep. British Journal of Nutrition 31, 319–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braithwaite, G. D., Glasscock, R. F. & Riazuddin, Sh. (1969). Calcium metabolism in lactating ewes. British Journal of Nutrition 23, 827–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braithwaite, G. D., Glascook, R. F. & Riazuddin, Sh. (1970). Calcium metabolism in pregnant ewes. British Journal of Nutrition 24, 661–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braithwaite, G. D. & Riazuddin, Sh. (1971). The effect of age and level of dietary calcium intake on calcium metabolism in sheep. British Journal of Nutrition 26, 215–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dowdle, E. B., Schachter, D. & Schenker, H. (1960). Requirement for vitamin D for the active transport of calcium by the intestine. American Journal of Physiology 198, 269–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duckworth, J. & Hill, R. (1953). The storage of elements in the skeleton. Nutrition Abstracts and Reviews 23, 1–17.Google ScholarPubMed
Duncan, D. L. (1958). The interpretation of studies of calcium and phosphorus balance in ruminants. Nutrition Abstracts and Reviews 28, 695–716.Google ScholarPubMed
Field, A. C. & Suttle, N. F. (1966). A method of determining the body composition of sheep based on dissolution of the sheep in nitric acid. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 25, xxiii–xxiv.Google Scholar
Field, A. C. & Suttle, N. F. (1970). Some observations on endogenous loss of calcium in sheep. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 73, 507–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiske, C. A. & Subbarow, Y. (1925). The colorimetric determination of phosphorus. Journal of Biological Chemistry 66, 375–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodge, R. W. (1973). Calcium requirements of the young lamb. I. Estimation of calcium requirements by the factorial method. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 24, 229–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemm, J. R. (1972). The effect of previous dietary intake of calcium on calcium absorption in rats. Journal of Physiology 223, 321–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kimberg, D. V., Schachter, D. & Schenker, H. (1961). Active transport of calcium by intestine: effects of dietary calcium. American Journal of Physiology 200, 1256–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Munro, J. (1955). Studies on the milk yields of Scottish Blackface ewes. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 46, 131–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicolayson, R. (1943). The absorption of calcium as a function of the body saturation with calcium. Acta Physiologica Scandinavia 5, 200–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicolayson, R., Eeg-Larsen, N. & Malm, O. J. (1953). Physiology of calcium metabolism. Physiological Reviews 33, 424–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peart, J. N. (1967). The effect of different levels of nutrition during late pregnancy on the subsequent milk production of Blackface ewes and on the growth of their lambs. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 68, 365–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peart, J. N. (1970). Factors influencing lactation of hill ewes. The Hill Farming Research Organisation, 4th Report.Google Scholar
Robinson, R., Roughan, M. E. & Wagstaff, D. F. (1971). Measuring inorganic phosphate without use of a reducing agent. Annals of Clinical Biochemistry 8, 168–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schachter, D., Dowdle, E. B. & Schenker, H. (1960). Active transport of calcium by the small intestine of the rat. American Journal of Physiology 198, 263–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, B. S. W. & Sykes, A. R. (1974). The effect of route of dosing and method of estimation of tritiated water space on the determination of total body water and the prediction of body fat in sheep. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 82, 105–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogel, A. I. (1951). A Text Book of Quantitative Inorganic Analysis: Theory and Practice. London: Longmans, Green.Google Scholar
Walker, D. M. (1972). Calcium and phosphorus retention by the milk-fed lamb with estimates of endogenous loss. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 79, 171–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wasserman, R. H., Corradino, R. A., Taylor, A. N. & Morrissey, R. L. (1971). In Cellular Mechanism for Calcium Transfer and Homeostasis (ed. Nichols, G. and Wasserman, R. H.). New York & London: Academic Press.Google Scholar