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Vitamins in Ruminants

Vitamins in Ruminants. Vitamins. Organic compounds required in trace amounts for biological processes Vital amine Fat soluble A, D, E, and K Absorbed with lipids Water soluble C, B family. Vitamins. Fat soluble Vitamins A, D, E and K Water soluble

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Vitamins in Ruminants

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  1. Vitamins in Ruminants

  2. Vitamins • Organic compounds required in trace amounts for biological processes • Vital amine • Fat soluble • A, D, E, and K • Absorbed with lipids • Water soluble • C, B family

  3. Vitamins • Fat soluble • Vitamins A, D, E and K • Water soluble • Thiamine, niacin, riboflavin, pyridoxine, • pantothenic acid, biotin, folic acid, • vitamin B12, vitamin C, choline • Water soluble vitamins and vitamin K synthesized in the rumen or in body tissues • Dietary requirements: Vitamins A, D, and E

  4. Vitamin Nutrition of Ruminants • Important • Some vitamins must be supplemented in the diet • Several aspects of vitamin nutrition unique to • ruminants • 3. Likely will be more important: • As productivity of ruminants is increased • With increased confinement of animals • References • Chapter 7 Dairy NRC 2001 • Chapter 6 Beef NRC 1996

  5. Vitamin Requirements of Ruminants • Ruminants require the same vitamins • as monogastric animals at cell level • Prior to rumen development young ruminants • require dietary sources of vitamins • Colostrum and milk • Concentration of vitamins in colostrum is greater • than in milk • Calves need to be fed vitamins if they are being fed • milk replacers with nonmilk protein

  6. Vitamin Requirements of Ruminants • Mature ruminants have dietary requirement for: • Vitamins A, D, and E • Vitamin D in feed or from UV exposure • B vitamins usually not supplemented in ruminant diets • High producing dairy cows sometimes benefit • from supplementation with B vitamins • Mixtures of biotin, niacin, riboflaven, panothenic • acid, thiamin, and B12

  7. Inadequate Dietary Vitamin Intakes • Low concentrations in feeds • Harvesting and agronomic effects • Processing and storage effects • Humidity, heat, light, pH, minerals, pelleting • Reduced feed intake • Bioavailability • B-vitamins affected more than fat soluble • Level of production • Increased grain intake, increased feed intake, • increased rate of passage, reduced rumen function • Rearing in confinement out of sunlight • Stress and disease • Decreased feed intake, increased requirement

  8. Factors Influencing Vitamin Stability + = stable - = unstable ( ) = tocopheryl acetate

  9. Circumstances Affecting Vitamin Nutrition • Vitamin antagonists of importance to ruminants • Dicumarin (Dicumarol) • Found in moldy sweet clover - Blocks the action • of vitamin K (Depresses formation of thrombin) • Animals can bleed internally • Rancid fats • Destroys vitamins A, D, and E • Thiamin antagonists • Thiaminase - may develop in the rumen • Amprolium blocks absorption • Sulfur may destroy thiamin in the rumen

  10. Situations for Supplementing Vitamins

  11. Vitamin A (Retinol) • Vitamin of most practical importance in ruminant feeds. • Deficiency most likely: • High concentrate feeds (low forage) • Large amounts of fermented feeds • Mature - drought pastures • Long stored feeds • Sunlight, air, high temperatures • Heavily processed feeds • Some destruction of vitamin A in the rumen • Increases when concentrates are fed • Forage diets 20% Grain diets up to 70%

  12. -Carotene • Provitamin A found in many plants • Mostly in the vegetative parts of plants • Decreases as plants mature • Decreases with time in storage • Some destruction in the rumen (0 to 35%) • Converted to retinol by enzymes in intestinal • mucosal cells • Some absorption of -carotene • Ruminants do not efficiently convert carotene • to vitamin A • 1 mg carotene = 400 IU vitamin A

  13. Vitamin A • Deficiency • Reduced feed intake - slow growth • Rough hair coat • Edema of joints and brisket • Watery eyes • Night blindness • Retinol needed for synthesis of rhodopsin • Low conception • Still births • Function of immune system

  14. Vitamin A • Functions • Normal night vision • http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/matthews/rhodopsin.html

  15. Vitamin A • Requirements • Cattle IU/kg feed DM • Growing 2,200 • Pregnant beef cows 2,800 • Pregnant dairy cows 4,000 • Lactating cows 3,900 • Sheep • Growing lambs 1,500 • Gestating ewes 3,300 • Lactating ewes 2,700

  16. Vitamin A • Requirements • Dairy cattle • Growing: 80 IU/kg body wt • Adult: 110 IU/kg body wt • Supplemental Vitamin A (retinol) • 1 IU of Vit A activity = • 0.344 ug of all-trans retinyl acetate • 0.550 ug all-trans retinyl palmitate

  17. Vitamin A – When to Supplement? • Carotene content of feeds is variable and usually • unknown • Cost of supplemental vitamin A is low – so usually • should supplement • Exception is animals grazing green forages • Should be consuming adequate carotene • Increased exposure to infectious pathogens • Times when immunocompetence may be reduced

  18. Vitamin A Reserves in the Body • Vitamin A stored in the liver when intake of • vitamin A or carotene is high • Vitamin A in the liver has about 4 week • half life • Should not depend on more that 2 to 4 • months of protection from storage of • vitamin A in the liver • Ruminants have a high tolerance for • vitamin A Will tolerate 66,000 IU/kg feed

  19. Vitamin D • Ergocalciferol (Vitamin D2) - found in plants • Cholecalciferol (Vitamin D3) - found in animals • Photochemical conversion in skin: • 7-dehydrocholesterol Cholecalciferol • Liver (Sequesters Vit D3) • Vit D3 25-hydroxy-vit D3 • Circulating form of Vit D3 • Blood concentrations of 25-hydroxy-vit D3 • indication of vitamin D status of the animal • Kindney • 25-hydroxy-vit D3 1, 25-dihydroxy-vit D3 • Active form of vitamin D • Active on skeleton and intestine • Potentiates action of parathyroid hormone

  20. Vitamin D from UV exposure Active Vit D3

  21. Vitamin D3 • Low blood Ca (or P) increases parathyroid hormone • secretion • Parathyroid hormone increases production of • 1,25-dihydroxy-vit D3 in kidney • Increases resorption of bone Ca and P • Involved in: • Absorption of Ca and P and mobilization of Ca • and P from bone • Regulation of blood Ca and P • Immune cell function • Reproduction of males and females

  22. Vitamin D - Ruminants • Deficiency • Rickets in calves • Swollen and stiff joints • Reduced feed intake • Tetany • Weak bones • Vitamin D can be toxic • High blood Ca • Calcification of soft tissues • Loss of appetite • Vitamin D not stored in the body in any quantity

  23. Vitamin D - Requirements • Requirement IU/kg Feed DM • All beef cattle 275 • Growing lambs 185 • Gestating ewes 216 • Lactating ewes 148 • Lactating dairy 30 IU/kg body wt • Dry pregnant cows 30 IU/kg body wt • Generally recognized as more than required • Animals fed sun cured hays and/or kept in sunlight have limited needs for supplemental vitamin D • Dairy NRC does not give credit to feed and sunlight • as sources of vitamin D

  24. Vitamin D Toxicity • Safe feeding levels: • A few days - 25,000 IU/kg feed • 60 days - 2,200 IU/kg feed • Toxicity • Loss of appetite • Weight loss • Reduced rumination • Depression • Widespread calcification of soft tissue • Kidneys, heart, pancreas, lymph glands, lung alveoli • Inflammation • Demineralization of skeletal system

  25. Feeding Mega Doses of Vitamin D • Prevent milk fever • 20 million IU/d starting 3 to 5 days before calving • continuing through the fist day postpartum • Improve tenderness of beef • Assumption: • Increased blood and muscle Ca increases • activity of calpains, enzymes in muscle • that degrade muscle myofibrils • Observations: • Blood Ca increased • Increased degradation of myofibrils • Reduced force to shear muscle

  26. Vitamin E • -tocopherol is the most common form of • vitamin E in feeds • Vit E content of feeds is highly variable • Vit E decreases in forages with drying and storage • Most fresh forages excellent source of Vit E • Most grains have low concentrations of Vit E • Heat treatment destroys most of the Vit E • Supplemental form of vitamin E is DL- -tocopherol • The esterified form is more stable than the alcohol • Rumen metabolism is minimal • 1 IU = 1 mg DL- -tocopherol

  27. Vitamin E • Functions as an antioxidant and involved in • Maintenance of cell membranes • Immunity • Reproduction • Deficiency • White muscle disease • Weak muscles • Retained placenta • Reduced reproduction • Reduced disease resistance • Toxicity not demonstrated in ruminants • Vitamin E not extensively stored in the body

  28. Vitamin E - Dairy - 2001 • 1. Dry cows 60 days before calving • 80 IU/kg feed DM • Based on reduction of mastitis and immune function • Higher amounts needed for fetus and to increase • concentration in colostrum • 2. Lactating cows • 20 IU/kg feed DM • Needs to be increased when poor quality • forage is fed or if feeds have low Se content • Supplement Se if low in soils • 3 to 5 mg /d for dry cows • 6 to 8 mg/d for lactating cows

  29. Vitamin E - Beef & Sheep • Requirement IU/kg feed DM • All beef cattle 15 to 60 • Pregnant and lactating cows 20 • Growing heifers 25 • All sheep 15 • Related to adequacy of selenium • Vitamin E not transferred across placenta to fetus • Dependent on colostrum for dietary source • Feedlot cattle • Feed 500 IU/day for 100 days. • Extend shelf life of beef cuts in the sales case

  30. Vitamin K • Vitamin K is a generic term describing a group • of quinone compounds • Phylloquinone (vitamin K1) • Found in chloroplasts of plants • Menaquinone (vitamin K2) • Synthesized by rumen bacteria • Menadione (vitamin K3) • Synthetic form used for supplementing vit K

  31. Vitamin K • Required for synthesis of four blood clotting factors • Prothrombin, factors VII, IX, and X • Involved in blood clot formation • No established supplemental requirement for ruminants • Microbial synthesis and vit K in feeds • Deficiency limited to: • Cattle consuming moldy sweet clover have • prolonged clotting of blood - “sweet clover disease” • A fungus produces dicoumarol that is a metabolic • antagonist of vitamin K • Stiffness and lameness • Uncontrolled bleeding – hematoma of tissues

  32. Other Water Soluble VitaminsNot required in diet of ruminants • Ruminants with functional rumen obtain water • soluble vitamins from the digestive tract • Niacin -------- Supplementation may benefit high • Biotin ---- producing animals • Folic acid --- • Vitamin B12 – Synthesized in rumen if Co present, • not present in feeds • Vitamin C - Not synthesized in cattle until about 3 wks • Riboflavin • Pyridoxine • Pantothenic acid • Choline

  33. Supplementation of B Vitamins • Prevent overt deficiency symptoms • Probably occur only in calves fed milk replacers • 2. Prevent subclinical deficiencies • Optimum production • Impact of stress on immune system • Niacin - May benefit early lactation cows • Biotin - May benefit herds with high incidence of • hoof lesions • Folic acid - Might increase milk production • Cobalt - B12 - (methylmalonyl CoA mutase) utilization • of propionate, foliate metabolism, milk yield • B-vitamins - immune function of stressed cattle

  34. Thiamin • 1. Adequate quantities normally produced by the bacteria • in the rumen • 2. Inadequate thiamin • Thiaminase and thiamin antimetabolites produced • in ruminants fed rapidly fermented diets • Infrequently polioencephalomalacia (PEM), • a disorder of the central nervous system • develops • Retracted head, weakness, collapse, blindness • are symptoms • Respond to administration of thiamin

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