Cattle mineral deficiencies

Appleton, D.J., 1992. Review of the use of geochemical maps for identifying areas where mineral deficiencies or Excesses may Affect Cattle Rroductivity in Tropical Agriculture. British Geological Survey Technical Report WC/92/24, The Geological Society, London. 

Cobalt is one of twenty-seven known elements essential to humans (28) (see Mineral NUTRIENTS). It is an integral part of the cyanocobalamin [68-19-9] molecule, ie, vitamin B 2> only documented biochemically active cobalt component in humans (29,30) (see Vitamins, VITAMIN Vitamin B 2 is not synthesized by animals or higher plants, rather the primary source is bacterial flora in the digestive system of sheep and cattle (8). Except for humans, nonmminants do not appear to requite cobalt. Humans have between 2 and 5 mg of vitamin B22, and deficiency results in the development of pernicious anemia. The wasting disease in sheep and cattle is known as bush sickness in New Zealand, salt sickness in Florida, pine sickness in Scotland, and coast disease in AustraUa. These are essentially the same symptomatically, and are caused by cobalt deficiency. Symptoms include initial lack of appetite followed by scaliness of skin, lack of coordination, loss of flesh, pale mucous membranes, and retarded growth. The total laboratory synthesis of vitamin B 2 was completed in 65—70 steps over a period of eleven years (31). The complex stmcture was reported by Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin in 1961 (32) for which she was awarded a Nobel prize in 1964. 

The need to include a variety of minerals in experimental diets has already been mentioned this was especially stressed (1920-1930) by Boyd-Orr, the director of the Rowett Institute for Animal Nutrition in Scotland. Increasingly refined food sources led to the identification of large numbers of trace elements (e.g., Cu, Mn, Mo, Zn) whose importance in the diet was suggested from hydroponic experiments with plant seedlings. Cobalt is an example of such a trace element. Vitamin Bj2 is synthesized by bacteria in the rumens of sheep and cattle but is absent from their fodder. In Australia, sheep feeding on cobalt-deficient pastures failed to thrive because vitamin B12 could no longer be made. 

Adding cobalt to soils, either as cobalt sulfate, or as cobaltized superphosphate, can be used to increase the level of cobalt is plants and prevent cobalt deficiency in cattle and sheep. Cobalt fertilization may not be effective in prcvenling cobalt deficiency on alkaline soils because in these soils, the added cobalt quickly reverses to forms lhal arc not taken up by plants. Coball fertilization is more common in Australia than in the United Slates. In Ihe United Slates, eoball is usually added lo mixed feeds, mineral mixes, or salt licks... 

Mineral and vitamin deficiencies can also interfere with the efficiency of ME utilisation. A deficiency of phosphorus has been shown to reduce the efficiency of ME utilisation in cattle by about 10 per cent. This effect is hardly surprising given the vital role of phosphorus in the energy-yielding reactions associated with intermediary metabolism. 

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