The Nutritive Value of Colostrum for the Calf

Abstract

The nutritional importance of lecithin for newborn animals has been demonstrated in America. Esh, Sutton, Hibbs & Krauss (1948) compared the performance of calves receiving colostrum for the first 7 days of life with that of calves deprived of colostrum but given skim milk containing a daily supplement of 25,000-37,500 i.u. vitamin A, and with that of calves that received in addition 3-4'5 g of soya-bean lecithin. Three of the five calves given the vitamin A supplement died within the first I I days of life, and the remaining two scoured from the 3rd to the 10th day. Low blood levels indicated that their vitamin A absorption was poor, whereas the blood level and the growth rate of the calves given lecithin as well as vitamin A were similar to those of the colostrum-fed calves. These authors also suggested that the liver storage of vitamin A was appreciably higher in calves given lecithin and vitamin A than in calves given vitamin A alone. Similarly, Esh & Sutton (1948) found that the addition of lecithin to vitamin A increased weight gains and the liver storage of vitamin A in rats. She%, Gallegos, Grummer, Phillips & Bohstedt (195 I ) found more recently that piglets deprived of colostrum scoured severely and died within 4-5 days unless 5 % of soya-bean lecithin was emulsified with the lard used in their semi-synthetic diet.