EFFECTS OF DIETARY CALCIUM AND PHOSPHORUS CONCENTRATIONS AND INTRAMUSCULAR INJECTIONS OF VITAMIN D3 ON GROWTH AND SERUM PARAMETERS OF LAMBS REARED IN A CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT
Three hundred and sixty-four artificially reared lambs were weaned at 21 days of age, assigned to four treatments and raised in a controlled environment. The 2 × 2 factorial experiment involved two diets containing 0.53% calcium (Ca) and 0.70% phosphorus (P) or 1.43% Ca and 0.50% P, respectively, with half of the lambs on each diet receiving two intramuscular injections (IMD) of vitamin D3 (250 000 IU at weaning and 500 000 IU at 70 days of age). The diets with the high Ca:P ratio produced higher rates of gain. Those lambs receiving IMD had slower growth rates compared to those receiving only dietary vitamin D. In all treatments, serum Ca levels were within normal ranges while serum P levels were higher than normal. Treatment differences in serum Ca were similar, though less consistent, to those observed for growth, whereas only inconsistent treatment differences occurred for P or alkaline phosphatase activity (AP). Although a few positive correlations were noted among serum parameters per se irrespective of treatment, they were without a general pattern. There were, however, positive correlations between growth rates and both serum AP and serum Ca activities, particularly at later stages of growth. The results indicated that a dietary Ca:P ratio of 2.9 was conducive to satisfactory growth, that high levels of vitamin D via injection were not beneficial and that measuring serum Ca, P and AP as indices of nutritional status is of little use as a practical management tool. Key words: Calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, vitamin D, lambs