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The effect of increasing the salt intake of pregnant dairy cows on the salt appetite and growth of their calves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2016

M. O. Mohamed  and
C. J. C. Phillips
M. O. Mohamed
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0ES, UK School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK
C. J. C. Phillips*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0ES, UK School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK
*
†Present address: Gatton Campus, University of Queensland, Gatton, QLD, Australia. E-mail:cjcp@cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

An increased sodium appetite has been demonstrated in cattle following supplementation with sodium in the neonatal period, but it is unclear whether the sodium appetite of calves can be influenced in utero by the dam’s sodium intake during pregnancy. Twenty-two non-lactating, pregnant dairy cows received either a diet of silage and concentrates or the same diet with 70 g NaCl per day added to it for the last 2 months of pregnancy. The sodium supplement increased the birth weight of their calves but after 6 weeks there was no difference between treatments in calf weight. In addition to milk, calves in both treatments were offered a choice of concentrates with normal or high sodium concentrations (5·8 and 10·8 g/kg dry matter, respectively). Calves from the cows that had received supplementary sodium during pregnancy ate more of the high sodium concentrate than calves from cows without the sodium supplement, demonstrating that sodium appetite could be entrained by the sodium intake of the dam during late pregnancy.

Keywords

calvesdairy cowspregnancysaltsodium chloride
Type
Ruminant nutrition, behaviour and production
Information
Animal Science , Volume 77 , Issue 1 , August 2003 , pp. 181 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 2003

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