VCP 411: Medicine Section

MINERAL STATUS

• Calcium: is a poor indicator for the metabolic profile test, as a firm homeostasis is recognized.
• Magnesium: Low levels indicate dietary deficiency, but at very high intake blood magnesium rises only to an upper limit and excess is excreted in the urine.
• Phosphorous: Difficulty to interpret. There are significant diurnal and daily fluctuations in plasma phosphorous and that a series of blood samples over a limited period of time would be needed to assess dietary status.
• Copper, selenium: they are best assessed by sampling pregnant animals, receiving no supplementary concentrations, since such products normally contain quire high levels of trace elements.
• Iodine, Cobalt: Interpretation is difficult. Although serum B12 is a reasonable indicator of cobalt status in sheep, the correlation in cattle is poor.