Summary. This paper reports the effects of a marginal phosphorus deficiency associated or not with an excess of calcium in 5 lots of 4 growing sheep each fed a semi-purified diet containing cellulose (25-27 %) and urea as the only nitrogen source.In experiment 1, two P-deficient diets (1.2 g/kg DM) poor (LPLCa) or rich (LPHCa) in Ca led to lower phosphatemia, decreased appetite and a negative or zero P balance. The effects of P deficiency were amplified by excess Ca.In experiment 2, two diets containing 1.5 g of P/kg DM and poor (LPLCa) or rich (LPHCa) in Ca were compared to a control diet (NPNCa). The two low-P diets did not produce any evident signs of deficiency and thus permitted minimal endogenous fecal loss of P to be evaluated at 24 mg/kg of live weight/day. This result confirms the figure adopted by INRA (1978) as the minimal maintenance requirement for P in sheep.Introduction.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.