Feeding Fatty Acids to Dairy Cows for Fertility

The essentiality of certain amino acids and certain fatty acids was established for growing rats at about the same time. W.C. Rose at the University of Illinois in the early 1930’s identified 10 essential dietary amino acids for rats. Soon thereafter, these same essential dietary amino acids were confirmed experimentally in growing nonruminant livestock. The fatty acids, linoleic acid (C18:2) and linolenic acid (C18:3), were identified in 1929 and 1930 as essential fatty acids (EFA) for growing rats fed nearly fatfree diets (Burr and Burr 1929; 1930). Their work documented that the cessation of growth and scaly skin condition caused by feeding the fat-free diet was reversed dramatically by supplementing with linoleic acid. Stearic (C18:0) and oleic acids (C18:1) were considered ineffective. Prolonged feeding of the fat-free diets resulted in death of the rats.