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Potassium, Phosphorus and Calcium Interrelationships Influencing Feedlot Performance and Phosphatic Urolithiasis in Lambs¹

South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, Brookings

Abstract

Two levels of potassium (0.41 and 1.01%), two levels of phosphorus (0.24 and 0.57%) and two levels of calcium (0.28 and 1.20%) were used in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorially designed experiment to determine the influence of excess dietary potassium on feedlot performance and the formation of phosphatic urinary calculi in lambs fed various levels of phosphorus and calcium. A total of 240 Texas ewe lambs were allotted to the eight treatments.

There was a tendency toward lower weight gains and feed consumption for lambs fed the higher level of dietary phosphorus. This effect was most pronounced in the presence of the highest level of potassium (1% potassium chloride added to the diet). Added calcium completely overcame these effects.

No obstructive urinary calculi were observed in these ewe lambs. However, those fed the highest level of phosphorus and the lowest level of calcium had a 55 to 57% calculi incidence as determined at slaughter. While the incidence of urinary calculi was no different in the lambs fed the higher level of potassium, the average size of the urinary mineral deposits was larger amounting to 120 and 83 mg for lambs on treatments with and without 1% potassium chloride, respectively. Increasing the level of calcium to 1.20% of the diet reduced the calculi incidence to 17%. These data support the existence of a detrimental potassium-phosphorus interrelationship expressed in lambs fed elevated levels of each.

¹ Published with approval of the Director of the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station as publication No. 898 of the journal series. This investigation was supported in part by a Public Health Service Research Career Development Award No. K3-AM-28,621 from the Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases and by a grant from the Borden Chemical Co., Smith-Douglass Division, Norfolk, Virginia.

² Department of Station Biochemistry.

³ Department of Animal Science.