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Parturient Paresis Related to Dietary Phosphorus¹

Department of Dairy Science, The University of Arizona, Tucson

ABSTRACT

A lack of available dietary phosphorus during lactation is a predisposing factor in the cause of milk fever.

A herd of Jersey cows having a high incidence (74%) of milk fever, were subjected to an experimental ration during lactation. The ration concentrate contained 5% monosodium phosphate but no calcium supplement. This was sufficient to near-balance the calcium-to-phosphorus intake. There was no incidence of milk fever in the experimental animals during the following parturition, when they had received the experimental ration over a given period while lactating (189 days before calving or approximately 130 days during the latter part of their lactation). Control animals fed the regular ration continued to have a high incidence of milk fever.

When the feeding of the experimental ration was discontinued, the first incidence of milk fever occurred in 232 days, or after the experimental cows had gone through a lactation without the phosphorus supplement.

The usual large amount of calcium and limited amount of phosphorus in dairy rations is, undoubtedly, one of the main reasons that sufficient dietary phosphorus is not available to heavily lactating cows, although the level of phosphorus in the ration might meet recommended levels. The usual addition of calcium supplements to dairy concentrates is certainly not justified under most feeding conditions.

¹ This work has been supported in part by the International Minerals and Chemical Corporation, Skokie, Illinois, and in part by a grant from The National Institutes of Health, Arizona Agriculture Experiment Station Technical Paper no. 920.