The development of cobalt deficiency was studied in 30 Scottish Blackface lambs grazing pasture on a soil containing 0-17 ppm cobalt. By the end of an eight-week period 50 per cent of lambs were subjectively appraised as showing signs of cobalt deficiency. After a further period lasting four weeks, during which three groups of lambs were studied (one group, least affected by cobalt deficiency, acted as control, the second received a single cobalt bullet and the third received oral doses of 200 mg cobalt chloride at the beginning of the period and three weeks later). Mean urinary formiminoglutamic acid (FIGLU) concentrations were inversely related to serum vitamin B12 concentrations and increased from 0-08 to 0-20 mumole per ml in group 1, and decreased to virtually zero within one week of treatment in groups 2 and 3. The use of serum vitamin B12 and urinary FIGLU concentrations in the diagnosis of cobalt deficiency in sheep are discussed.
1. Studies were made of the extent to which p-cresol, catechol, quinol and orcinol infused through rumen or abomasal cannulas to sheep were recovered in their urine.2. Rumen fermentation of dietary phenolic compounds caused the excretion of simple phenols in the urine. In decreasing order of magnitude these were: p-cresol, catechol, phenol and 4-methylcatechol with only traces of quinol and orcinol.3 . The percentages of rumen-infused p-cresol or orcinol recovered as increments in the urinary phenol outputs of sheep (94 and 997; respectively) following infusion showed that rumen degradation of these phenols was negligible.
4.After rumen infusion of catechol and quinol, mean recoveries of these phenols in urine were only 55 and 77% respectively. Possible reasons for these incomplete recoveries are discussed.5. Studies were also made of the use of the urinary phenol output of phenols characteristic of particular forages as indices of their voluntary intake by sheep. Calluna vulgaris L. (Hull) (heather) may contain 130&3600 mg/kg dry matter (DM) of orcinol and 200-800 mg/kg DM of quinol as P-glycosides. When heather was offered ad lih. to sheep given one of five levels of grass, linear relationships were found between heather intake and urinary quinol and orcinol outputs.6. The urinary output of aromatic acids was also determined when sheep ate grass and heather. Urinary phenylacetic acid output was linearly related to grass but not to heather intake. The relationship between urinary phenylacetic acid output and grass intake could vary with different forages but that between orcinol output and heather intake was considered a useful index of heather intake.7. Methods for the assay of urine phenols are discussed.As appropriately-substituted, naturally-occurring phenolic acids are known to be extensively decarboxylated to simple phenols by intestinal micro-organisms (Scheline, 1978), microbial fermentation of food in the rumen would be expected to lead to significant production of phenols. Studies in this laboratory (Martin, 1982c) have confirmed the relatively large urinary output of some phenols by sheep. When compared to the urinary output of normal healthy men, sheep excreted approximately seven times more p-cresol (Duran et af. 1973)
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