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Mineral Metabolism Studies in Dairy Cattle

IV. Effects of Mineral Supplementation of the Prepartal Diet Upon the Composition of the Blood of Cows and Their Calves at Parturition¹

New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Sussex, New Jersey

A study was made of the effects of calcium and of calcium with various trace elements in the prepartal diet upon the composition of the blood of 50 calves and their 49 dams immediately following parturition.

Mineral supplements fed for at least 2 months prepartum did not elicit perceptible effects upon the levels of calcium and inorganic phosphorus in the plasma of the newborn calves or of their dams. Of a number of whole blood and plasma constituents studied, the outstanding group differences found were the lower levels of reduced and total glutathione in both the cows and calves of group III (calcite flour¹⁰ supplemented) than in those of the other groups (basal diet alone, calcium carbonate supplemented, Mico¹¹ supplemented).

Greater concentrations of reduced and total glutathione, calcium, inorganic phosphorus, acid and alkaline phosphatase, and ascorbic acid and a greater number of erythrocytes were found in the blood of newborn calves than in that of their dams; a greater corpuscular hemoglobin content, corpuscular volume, and a higher plasma level of total proteins, globulin and labumin were found in cows than in their calves immediately following parturition.

Similar concentrations of the various blood constituents studied were found, regardless of the sex of the newborn calf.

Seven calves which received colostrum prior to the procurement of blood for analyses at an average age of 4.5 hours had strikingly higher plasma levels of total protein, globulin and albumin than those which had not been nursed by their dams. The blood of the calves which had ingested colostrum contained slightly less hemoglobin, smaller numbers of erythrocytes and a smaller proportion of the whole blood volume consisting of erythrocytes than the other calves, which may have been due to dilution of the blood. Small quantities of globulin [precipitable by half-saturated (NH₄)₂SO₄] were demonstrable in the plasma of newborn calves prior to the ingestion of colostrum.

² Present address: Department of Animal Husbandry, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

³ The authors are indebted to Mr. Paul Ross for the many services rendered throughout this study, and to Prof. C. E. Shuart for the supervision of the feeding and management of the animals.

Manuscript received 31 January 1948.