EFFECT OF INTAKE OF COPPER MOLYBDENUM AND SULPHATE ON COPPER METABOLISM IN SHEEP .2. COPPER STATUS OF NEWBORN LAMB

Liver and brain Cu concentrations in the newborn lamb were reduced by feeding a low Cu diet or a Mo + SO4 supplement to the pregnant ewe. When the two treatments are combined, liver, brain and blood Cu concentrations and brain cytochrome oxidase activities were reduced to the levels found in delayed cases of swayback. Despite these changes, subclinical evidence of swayback was found in only one lamb at birth and there were no clinical cases of the disease. When the low Cu diet was fed, a positive relationship was found between plasma Cu levels in the pregnant ewe and liver and brain Cu concentrations in her offspring; this relationship was not evident when Mo + SO4 was administered. There was no evidence in lambs of the anaemia and achromotrichia which was present in their Mo + SO4-treated mothers, and blood Mo concentrations were found to be only one-seventh of those in the mother at parturition. © 1968.