Effect of various iodine supplementations, rapeseed meal application and two different iodine species on the iodine status and iodine excretion of dairy cows

The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of various feed iodine supplementations up to the permitted maximum level in the EU, the effect of applying rapeseed meal (RSM) compared to a glucosinolate (GSL) free ration and the impact of two different iodine species (iodide, iodate) on milk, urinary, faecal and blood serum iodine as well as on T₃ and T₄ levels of blood. The results of the milk iodine are not completely shown but partly discussed in this paper. The study was conducted with 32 dairy cows, divided into 4 groups with 8 animals each. In two groups the cows were fed distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) as main protein source (16.5% of ration DM), in the other groups rapeseed meal (3.5 mmol GSL/kg) was applied. In each case half of the animals received feed with iodine in the form of potassium iodide, the other half as calcium iodate. Iodine supplementations of 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 mg/kg DM were tested in consecutive periods of 21 days each. The supplementary iodine increased iodine contents of serum, urine and faeces. RSM application resulted in consistently higher iodine contents in the mentioned matrices just displaying significant differences at high supplementation levels. When feeding DDGS, at high iodine supplementations iodide caused higher serum and faecal iodine than iodate. Besides, the iodine species showed no consistent impact on the tested parameters. At the highest tested iodine supplementation (5 mg/kg DM) in the experimental groups (DDGS/iodide, DDGS/iodate, RSM/iodide, RSM/iodate) the iodine concentration of serum amounted to 234, 157, 334 and 361 µg/l, of urine to 1134, 1020, 2341 and 2513 µg/l and of faeces to 673, 354, 715 and 790 µg/kg fresh matter. At the same supplementation level T₄ was significantly lowered. No impact was shown for the RSM application and the iodine species on T₃ and T₄. The results of the present study indicate that high iodine intakes not only cause strong increases in milk and urinary iodine but also lead to a considerable rise of iodine excretion via faeces. RSM in feed causes a shift of iodine normally excreted via milk to an excretion via urine and faeces accompanied by higher serum iodine.