Cobalt deficiency in New York State.

F ROM time to time during the past several years, reports have filtered into the College of an unhealthy condition of cattle in the northern counties of New York State which clearly could not be diagnosed as de, ficiencies of phosphorus, calcium or a lack of total feed. As information concerning cobalt deficiency became more abundant, many points of similarity were recognized batween the symptoms of these New York cattle and the described symptoms of cobalt deficiency. Chemical analysis of forage samples from so-called "trouble farms" by one of us (KCB) gave support to the cobalt deficiency hypothesis in that many forage samples ran critically low in this element. Several veterinarians in the northern areas, particularly Dr. Grace of Potsdam, cited remarkable responses in some unhealthy cattle when cobalt salts were administered as a drench. In x947 a study of cobalt metabolism in sheep was initiated having as its purpose the biological testing of forage crops from selected areas of the State for cobalt adequacy and furthermore to determine the metabolic role of cobalt in the animal body, particularly the ruminant. The present paper is a report from this study. No attempt will be made here to review the literature extensively since several excellent reviews of cobalt nutrition are available. Among the more recent are those by Russell (x944) and Maynard and Smith (I947).