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Efficacy of Various Chlorides and Calcium Carbonate in the Prevention of Urinary Calculi¹

South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, Brookings

Abstract

Wether lambs averaging 29 kg. were used in nine treatment groups of 21 to 25 lambs each and fed a known calculogenic basal ration to which either ammonium chloride, calcium chloride, sodium chloride or calcium carbonate was added. Each compound was fed as 0.5 and 1.5% of the diet.

Feeding either 1.5% ammonium chloride or calcium chloride resulted in a significant reduction in urolithiasis. The incidence was 4, 4, 33 and 24%, respectively, when ammonium chloride, calcium chloride, sodium chloride and calcium carbonate were fed at the 1.5% level, and 42, 46, 38 and 44%, respectively, when fed at the 0.5% level. The controls had a 50% incidence of calculi.

Feeding ammonium chloride or calcium chloride at the 1.5% level also significantly lowered urine pH and significantly increased urinary calcium excretion. None of the compounds had a detrimental effect upon feed consumption, rate of gain or carcass grade when fed at either level.

In a second experiment, 132 ewe lambs averaging 39 kg. were fed supplements containing two levels of soybean meal (0 and 75%) and three levels of ammonium chloride (0, 8 and 16%) in a 2x3 factorially designed experiment. The supplements, comprising 10% of the total ration, were fed as a top-dressing and were only partially mixed with the remainder of the ration. When fed with a ground ear corn ration (period 1), both levels of added ammonium chloride lowered feed consumption. With a change of the ration to include corn silage (period 2), 8% ammonium chloride in the supplement was neither detrimental nor beneficial, but 16% ammonium chloride reduced feed consumption and weight gain. Feeding the highest level of ammonium chloride (16% in the supplement), resulting in an intake of approximately 19 gm. per head daily, significantly decreased the incidence of urinary calculi.

¹ Published with approval of the Director of the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station As Publication No. 755 of the Journal Series. This Investigation was Supported In part by a Public Health Service Research Career Program Award No. 1-K3 Am-28, 621-01 from the Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases.

² Department of Station Biochemistry.

³ Department of Animal Science.