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In vivo estimation of body composition of lactating dairy cattle from urea space measurements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

R. E. Agnew ,
W J McCaughey ,
J.D. McEvoy ,
D C Patterson ,
M G Porter ,
R W J Steen  and
T Yan
R. E. Agnew
Affiliation:
The Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down BT26 6DR, U.K
W J McCaughey
Affiliation:
The Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down BT26 6DR, U.K
J.D. McEvoy
Affiliation:
Veterinary Sciences Division, Stoney Road, Stormont, Belfast, BT4 3SB, U.K
D C Patterson
Affiliation:
The Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down BT26 6DR, U.K
M G Porter
Affiliation:
The Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down BT26 6DR, U.K
R W J Steen
Affiliation:
The Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down BT26 6DR, U.K
T Yan
Affiliation:
The Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down BT26 6DR, U.K
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Extract

San Pietro and Rittenberg (1953) reported that urea appeared to meet all the requirements of a satisfactory tracer. Urea is non toxic, not foreign to the body and it shows an even and rapid distribution throughout the total body water without any physiological effect. For these reasons in addition to its easy and accurate measurement, urea is an ideal candidate tracer to estimate empty body water in vivo. Total body water volume (urea space) can be estimated by dividing the total amount of urea infused by the increase in plasma urea concentration from prior to infusion until 12 or 30 minutes after mean infusion time. Kock and Preston (1973) reported significant relationships between urea space measurements and percentage of empty body fat and water in cattle. However, Andrew et al. (1995) using 21 Holstein cows showed that prediction of empty body water using the urea space technique only explained 31 % of the variation. The objective of this experiment was to use the urea dilution technique to estimate the body composition of lactating dairy cows and produce relationships between urea space and body fat and protein content.

Type
Poster Presentations
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 2001 , 2001 , pp. 206
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2001

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References

Andrew, S.M, Erdman, R.A. and Waldo, D.R. 1995. Prediction of body composition of dairy cows at three physiological stages from deuterium oxide and urea dilution. Journal of Dairy Science, 78, 1083–1095.Google Scholar
Kock, S.W. and Preston, R.L. 1973. Estimation of bovine carcass composition by the urea dilution technique. Journal of Animal Science, 48, 319–327.Google Scholar
San Pietro, A. and Rittenberg, D. 1953. A study of the rate of protein synthesis in humans. 1. Measurement of the urea pool and urea space. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 201, 445 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed