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Effect of Vitamin D on the Ability of Cows to Mobilize Blood Calcium¹

Department of Dairy Science, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Wooster

ABSTRACT

The intravenous infusion of ethylene-diaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) was used as a blood calcium challenge technique to measure the relative ability of vitamin D fed and control cows to mobilize blood calcium, and as an indicator of available calcium reserves. Based on one-half recovery time, six- to 10-minute infusions revealed no differences in blood calcium mobilizing ability due to vitamin D feeding. However, cows with previous milk fever history had a longer one-half recovery time than cows with no milk fever history. A more severe challenge, four-hour EDTA infusions, showed older cows to require longer for one-half recovery of blood calcium, but no differences due to vitamin D feeding or level of milk production. The linear regression coefficients calculated from reciprocals of serum calcium plotted against infusion time, for vitamin D and control cows, were statistically different and indicated that vitamin D fed cows could withstand a similar drain on their blood calcium at least one- and one-half times longer than the controls. Herein may lie the key to the effectiveness of vitamin D feeding in milk fever prevention.

¹ Published with the approval of the Associate Director of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Wooster, as Journal Article no. 98-67.

² Data in this paper were presented to the Graduate Faculty of The Ohio State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science.