Retrospective diagnosis of intrauterine diselementosis in newborn calves

Abstract

One of the methods in diselementosis diagnosis, i.e. in determination of the trace elements content excess, deficiency or imbalance in the organism, is screening the hair elemental composition. It is known that the tail brush hair growth in cattle begins from the 7th month of gestation. The authors suggested that the tail brush hair elemental composition in newborn calves could be used for integral evaluation of the trace elements supply to the fetus in the last months of its intrauterine development. In order to elaborate criteria for retrospective diagnosis of the intrauterine diselementosis, 125 clinically healthy 1-day-old calves (67 male and 58 female animals) were examined; they were obtained from Simmental cows with a physiological course of gestation under biogeochemical conditions of the Central Black Earth region of the Russian Federation. The concentration of 11 essential (Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, I, Li, Mn, Se, Si, V, Zn) and 8 toxic (As, B, Cd, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sn, Sr) trace elements were studied in samples of unpigmented guard hairs from the animal tail brush by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (Nexion 300D, Perkin Elmer, USA). The results were expressed as mean ± standard error of mean, median, minimum, and maximum. Reference values of essential and toxic trace elements concentration in the hair of newborns were determined using the percentile scales separately for the groups of male and female animals. Group comparison was conducted using the independent samples Mann-Whitney U test. Research results demonstrated that physiologically determined the range of the trace elements concentration in the hair of newborn calves corresponded to the interval between the 25th and 75th percentiles. Values beyond the specified interval boundaries were proposed to be considered as deviations corresponding to the diselementosis.