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Iron and Vitamin A as Treatments in the Nutrition of Newborn Lambs¹

Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station⁴, Wooster

Abstract

The 40-day prepartum supplementation of brood ewes with approximately 633 I.U. of vitamin A per pound of body weight resulted in significantly higher plasma vitamin A levels for treated ewes at 10 days prepartum and 10 days postpartum. Colostrum vitamin A level of the treated ewes was 129% higher than the value of control ewes. Ewes delivering twins exhibited higher colostrum vitamin A levels than ewes delivering singles. Vitamin A level of 10-day postpartum milk samples was 96% higher for treated ewes than for controls.

Plasma vitamin A level of lambs at birth from vitamin A treated ewes was 7.46 mcg./ 100 ml. higher than for lambs from control ewes. Although the plasma A level in both groups increased markedly after nursing started, at 21 days of age lambs from treated ewes were 4.48 mcg./100 ml. higher in plasma vitamin A than lambs from control ewes. Ewe treatment, however, did not have a significant effect on lamb gains. The treatment of newborn lambs with 25,000 I.U. of vitamin A, or 225 mg. of injectable iron dextran at birth and again at 10 days, or the combination of these two did not significantly affect daily gains of lambs from birth until weaning. Lambs treated with vitamin A averaged 3.34 mcg./100 ml. higher in plasma vitamin A at 10 days of age than untreated lambs. Lambs treated with iron dextran had significantly higher oxyhemoglobin and hematocrit levels than untreated lambs at 10, 21 and 40 days of age, with the greatest difference at 21 days of age. In the first trial involving 65 ewes, an apparent increased survival of twin lambs due to prepartum treatment of the ewes with vitamin A was noted. In the second trial with 147 ewes, prepartum treatment of ewes with 316 I.U. or 633 I.U. of vitamin A per pound of body weight daily had no significant effect on lamb survival or growth rates.

¹ Approved for publication as Journal Article No. 66–64 by the Associate Director of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Wooster.

² This paper represents part of a dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the Ohio State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree.

³ Present address: Department of Animal Science, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.

⁴ Department of Animal Science.