[Jacob-list] Re:minerals, symptoms

[Grose]

Chelated molybdenum. Yea, that's the ticket. This is Mb bound up with a
protein to make sure that it is taken up efficiently. I cannot imagine a
situation where there is to much Mb, but I am sure that there is. I do know
of a farm in this county where the sheep were diagnosed with a copper
deficiency induced anemia. The probable culprit was an excess level of iron
in the pasture forage. High levels of iron can tie up the available sites
that copper is supposed to take on the hemoglobin. The other possibility in
this case was that the sheep were consuming zinc from the foot bath, I don't
think so! What we need to take away from this is that YOU HAVE TO CHECK what
is actually in your feed or at least find out about the special problems in
your area from competent sources. To be honest, I would consult a dairy
specialist before a beef person if you are in a non-sheep tradition area.
The nutritional requirements of a ewe feeding lambs [twins and more] is
closer to a cow milking 100 pounds a day than to a beef cow with one calf.
It would not surprise me to see jaundice, I just haven't had any particular
suspicion until I knew that there was a problem, and by then, the problems
were so acute that I didn't care. Necropsy of these animals showed a liver
with a definite "copper" sheen. The liver had retained copper until the
stress of  lambing caused it to dump the copper into the sheeps system.
                                           Neal Grose
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary Tomas Fay" <fayg at mebtel.net>
To: "Grose" <NLGrose at YadTel.Net>; "jacoblist" <jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2001 5:36 PM
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Re:minerals, symptoms


> Neal,
>
> Thanks for that valuable information. I decided it was about time to get
> some more advanced information on Livestock Metabolism. I headed over to
> State's campus and found two great books, on on Physiology and one on
> Feeds and Nutrition. (Ensminger, Oldfield and Heinmann) The Ensminger
> text did not have much on copper toxicity, but had a good deal on
> copper deficiency, especially as related to the levels of Molybdenum.
>
> In fact they went into great detail on how to increase the levels of
> copper in the diet to meet the nutrional requirements of the sheep in
> areas of excess Molybdenum. They even suggested looking into the eyes
> for Jaundice (copper toxicity) if the Molybdenum levels were too low. I
> am not sure if that was the chelating substance to which you were
> refering or not but from the descriptions it seems like an important
> ratio to balance.
>
> I always love going back to State's campus, they usually have the best
> reference materials for agriculture. Much better than that "other"
> school we talked about. Nice to know there are so many experts around to
> assist with such critical items. (Both on campus and on the list.) I
> almost wish I was younger, head back to school, pick up some animal
> husbandry classes. Perhaps I will take a seminar or two if I can find a
> listing. (        Not only that, there are more girls on campus now than
> when I went... 7;-}                       - )
>
> Gary...
>
> Grose wrote:
>
> >  I do not see evidence of jaundice prior to illness, though there is
> > not much reason to look until they fall over. Keep in mind that I have
> > not had  copper toxicity in the Jacobs. As I understand it, sheep are
> > amaisingly good at conserving copper, which is stored in the liver. I
> > do not know if you can test for liver enzymes to fortell problems.
> > Some treatment is supposed to be possible by feeding chelated minerals
> > which are formulated to tie up the copper and allow it to be
> > excreted.Sheep breeds differ in copper tolerance accordding to where
> > the base breed stock evolved. Geographic areas which hwd naturally low
> > levels of copper yield sheep breeds that fall over dead at a wiff of
> > copper. Those areas with high levels of copper yield breeds that show
> > little or no problems. Silver Lincolns die before white ones which die
> > before Black faces which die before Finns etc. In addition, different
> > forages, grains, and mineral mixes have copper that is absorbed
> > differently. Absorbtion is also affected by pH in the rumenIt is not a
> > bad idea to have your forages tested for copper as well as other
> > nutriants. Be confident in you mineral supplier. Mineral suppliment is
> > the CHEAPEST part of  rations, including water. It makes no sense to
> > simply buy the cheapest thing on the
> > market.                                              Neal Grose
>
>
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