Studies on salt tolerance of sheep. IV. The tolerance of sheep for mixtures of sodium chloride and calcium chloride in the drinking water

Abstract

Six groups, each of six sheep, were fed in pens for 15 months on a ration of chaffed lucerne and wheaten hays. One group was offered rain-water to drink, another group was offered 1.30% sodium chloride, whereas the others were offered one of the following mixtures of sodium and calcium chlorides: 1.24 + 0.05, 1.19 + 0.10, l.09 + 0.20, and 0.98 + 0.30%. The intake of all saline solutions was higher than that of rain-water, ranging from 100% above for 1.30% sodium chloride to 20% above for 0.30% calcium chloride; the mean daily intakes for the entire experiment by the six groups were 2.6, 5.2, 4.6, 4.4, 3.8, and 3.11, respectively. The intake also increased in all groups with temperature, being 45–60% higher in the hottest months than in the coldest months. The saline drinking waters had no effect on the concentrations of potassium, magnesium, or chloride in the blood plasma, but did result, for a considerable portion of the experiment, in lower concentrations of sodium and higher concentrations of calcium in the plasma as compared with the concentrations of these electrolytes in the plasma of sheep drinking rain-water. None of the solutions used in the experiment had any adverse effect on the general health, food consumption, weight increase, or wool production of the sheep.