ANN 111: Principles of Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology (2+1)

COPPER POISONING 

• Continuous ingestion of copper in excess of nutritional requirements leads to an accumulation of the element in the body tissues, especially in the liver. Hence copper can be regarded as a cumulative poison.
• The tolerance to copper varies considerably between species. Pigs are highly tolerant and cattle relatively so. On the other hand, sheep are particularly susceptible and chronic copper poisoning has been encountered in housed sheep on concentrate diets containing 40 mg/kg of copper.
• Chronic copper poisoning results in necrosis of the liver cells, jaundice, loss of appetite and death from hepatic coma.