Increased tolerance to annual ryegrass toxicity in sheep given a supplement of cobalt |
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Authors: | SC DAVIES,CL WHITE&dagger ,IH WILLIAMS |
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Affiliation: | *Faculty of Agriculture, Animal Science, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia 6009;†CSIRO Division of Animal Production, Private Bag, PO Wembley, Western Australia 6014 |
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Abstract: | SUMMARY To determine whether oral cobalt supplements could modify the clinical onset of annual ryegrass toxicity, groups (n = 5) of sheep were dosed orally with 0, 4 or 16 mg cobalt/day. After 3 weeks on this treatment, toxic ryegrass seed was added to their feed to provide 0, 0.15 and 0.30 mg corynetoxins/kg body weight, daily. Sheep receiving cobalt ingested 30% more toxin than did unsupplemented sheep before clinical signs developed (P = 0.03). There was no significant difference between groups receiving 4 and 16 mg cobalt. The results showed that cobalt delayed, but did not prevent, the onset of clinical signs of annual ryegrass toxicity. |
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