A Study of the Function of Cobalt in the Nutrition of Sheep

Abstract

The essentiality of cobalt in the diet of sheep has been proved by Underwood and Filmer (I935), Marston et al. (I938), Bowstead and Sackville (i939), Bowstead et el. (I94z), Pope et al. (1947), and by Keener et al. (I948). Numerous workers in this country and abroad also have identified cobalt deficiency m cattle. Little progress appears to have been made, however, in determining the function of cobalt in the diet of ruminants until Rickes et al. (1948) isolated vitamin B12 and found that it was a cobalt complex. Although the role of cobalt in vitamin B~ synthesis may not be the one which is involved in cobalt deficiency, this discovery apparently marks an important advance in determining the overall function of cobalt in animal nutrition. It is believed generally that cobalt has an essential function in the production of some sort of appetite-stimulating factor by the flora of the rumen.