2.1 The Nutritional Basis for Trace Element Deficiencies in Ruminant Livestock

Abstract

The role of trace element deficiencies in the causation of clinical diseases is often questioned because of the poor correlations which are found between the trace element status of the animal or its diet and the incidence of disease. The most striking example is that relating to the copper (Cu) nutrition of sheep, in which concentrate diets containing 8 mg Cu/kg DM can cause poisoning (Hogan, Money and Blayney, 1968) while pastures containing twice as much Cu can cause a deficiency disease (swayback) to develop (Allcroft and Lewis, 1957; Alloway, 1973). Unidentified stress factors are often invoked to explain such anomalies. However, the poor relationships between nutritional status and disease incidence reflect the inadequacies of past methods of assessing the extent that a trace element is absorbed from the diet and its functional activity in the animal and the fact that requirements vary during an animal's life. The object of this paper is to re-emphasize the nutritional component of trace element disorders by looking at the quantitative and functional basis of trace element requirements, the factors which predispose animals to deficiencies and how these might be countered.