Iron and Vitamin a as Treatments in the Nutrition of Newborn Lambs.

p R E L I M I N A R Y work at this laboratory indicated that lambs are born with a low plasma vitamin A level. Similar results have been reported by Pierce (1947) and Pope et al. (1949). In the preliminary study a correlation of 0.39 was found between plasma vitamin A level of lambs at birth and birth weight, of 0.38 between plasma vitamin A level of lambs at 10 days and average daily gain from 0 to 10 days, and of 0.42 between plasma vitamin A level of lambs at 10 days and average daily gain from 10 to 30 days. Eaton (1949) reported that lambs from prepartum vitamin A supplemented ewes exhibited higher plasma vitamin A levels than Iambs from control ewes at birth and 30 days of age. Since that work little research has been reported on the effect of prepartum supplementation of brood ewes with vitamin A upon the survival and performance of their lambs. The experiment reported herein involved the 40-day oral prepartum supplementation of pregnant ewes with vitamin A and the supplementation of newborn lambs with vitamin A and treatment with iron dextran. The major objective was to determine if these supplements could increase performance and survival of lambs, especially during the first few weeks following parturition.