Plasma Levels of Vitamins A, E and Carotene in Cows in Late Pregnancy and in Their Foetuses

Abstract

Jagoi P .• J. Bouda. J. Geryk: The Plasma LefJeZs of Vitamin A. E and Carotene in Cows in Late Pregnancy and in Their Foetuses. Acta vet. Brno. 48.1979: 19-23. Experiments involving 20 cows in late pregnancy and their foteuses aged 8-9 months were conducted to study the blood plasma content of the vitamins A. E and carotene and the liver vitamin A content of these individuals.The vitamin A content of the foetal plasma wss more than two times lower than that of the dams. and the foetal liver content of vitamin A was approximately ten times lower than the values found in the dams.Similarly. much lower plasma content of vitamin E and carotene were determined in the foetuses than in their mothers. These differences were statistically significant.The results of the study indicated that the bovine foetus and newborn calf have only minimum stores of the above-mentioned vitamins and they depend on early and abundant feeding of colostrum to meet their requirements. Blood plasma. liver. mother. foetus. vitamins A. E.An important part in the frequent calf diseases occurring predominantly in winter and spring is ascribed to the noninfectious factors including hypovitaminosis A. Decreased resistance of the organism and frequent diseases of the newborn animals have been known to result from the hypovitaminosis A (Moore 1957;Dvorak 1959Dvorak . 1960 Pi'ibyl 1963; Spratling et a1. 1965; Seawright 1966;Rosenberger 1970; Radominski et a1. 1970; Eaton et a1. 1972). Calves are born with low plasma levels and stores of vitamin A and carotene which indicates a low transfer of these substances through the placenta (Moore 1957). Low vitamin A content was also found in the livers of bovine and equine foetuses (Harms 1951). The livers of bovine foetuses contained 1.5 % of the amount of vitamin A found in the livers of adult cattle. Somewhat higher percentage -4 % -was found in equine foetuses.A certain amount of vitamin A is necessary for the normal development of the foetus and its reserve of this vitamin during the first hours of postnatal life is important for survival and health of the newborn calf in the early postnatal period (Brantstetter et a1. 1973). This follows from the observation of deaths in calves fed no colostrum which had extremely low vitamin A reserves (Moore 1957). In livers of 6 newborn calves an average of 7.3 pg of vitamin A per 1 g liver tissue was found while in their mothers 37 times higher content was detected (Brantstetter et al. 1973). Similar vitamin A amounts were also found in bovine foetuses aged 110-240 days (Baetze and Hubert 1974). Nevertheless. in the blood serum of these foetuses 19.9 pg per 100 ml of vitamin A were found; this value is in good agreement with findings of Baker et a1. (1953) and Spielman et a1. (1946).Good performance of young calves requires also vitamin E supporting mainly the muscular function (Kursa et a1. 1969;Jenkins. Hidiroglou 1972;Vrzgula et al. 1972;Lannek 1973; Koval! et al. 1974). Its antioxidative properties enhance the utilization of vitamin A up to 6 time...

Influence of parenteral administration of selenium and vitamin E during pregnancy on selected metabolic parameters and colostrum quality in dairy cows at parturition

“…Sufficient intake of vitamin E through colostrum is extremely important for newborn ruminants, because fat-soluble vitamins are transported only in a limited degree through the placenta into the foetus and therefore the stores of the newborn calves are low (Van Saun et al, 1989;Njeru et al, 1994). Analysis of Jagos et al (1979) show, that the concentrations of β-carotene, as well as of vitamin A and E in the blood plasma of foetuses in the age of 8 to 9 months are much lower than that in the plasma of their cows. Figures 3 and 4 show the results of additional examinations of colostrum.…”

Vitamins A, C, and E and β‐Carotene Content in Seeds of Seven Species of Vicia L.

“…Levels of vitamin E and β-carotene were found to be between 7.38 and 4.31 mg/mL at the beginning of pregnancy, whereas they were between 1.14 and 1.64 mg/mL at the final stages of pregnancy (Aksakal et al 1990). In the same way, vitamin E levels in the blood serum of Holstein cows were determined as 1.37 mg/mL during the sixth and seventh months of pregnancy (Jagos et al 1979), whereas in the last month of pregnancy the vitamin E content had decreased to 1.68 mg/mL (Lynch 1983).…”

Serum ß-carotene and Vitamin A Levels in Spontaneous Premature Calves with Respiratory Distress Syndrome

“…Levels of vitamin A and ß-carotene in blood and especially in liver of newborn offspring are very low [37,38] . It has been reported that these levels increase with colostrums intake [17][18][19]38,39] and especially there is a positive correlation between mother, colostrums and calf for ß-carotene [40] .…”