Hair and Blood Plasma as Indicators of Minerals Status in Cattle and Buffaloes

The present investigation included two experiments. The first dealt with mineral levels in hair and blood plasma as possible indicators for the different minerals status of growing and adult Friesian and buffaloes which were fed under practical conditions during the period from November 1988 to August 1989. Friesian and buffaloes were almost similar in age and body weight and were fed winter ration consisted of concentrate mixture, berseem and rice straw during winter and spring seasons and summer ration consisted of concentrate mixture plus rice straw during summer and autumn seasons. Samples of hair, blood plasma and feedstuffs were taken four times every three months throughout the whole experimental period for chemical analysis. The second experiment included three barky rams with average body weight of 50 kg to determine the effect of the two rations fed during the 1 experiment on mineral availability to confirm the results obtained by hair or blood plasma of cattle and buffaloes from the 1 experiment in two metabolism trials. Results of the present study indicated that dietary levels of Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cu and Fe for cattle and buffaloes and their growing heifers were higher than the requirements of animals. Thus concentrations of these elements in hair were higher than the critical values. On the other hand, P, Zn and Mn concentrations were low in both cattle and buffaloes hair as a result of their deficiency or imbalance in the diets. The higher or lower levels of mineral than the critical values in cattle and buffaloes hair were confirmed with positive or negative balances in metabolism trials by sheep. From the results of hair analysis for both Friesian cattle and Egyptian buffaloes, it could be concluded that deficiencies of major and trace elements can be detected by hair analysis. While blood plasma Fe was useful to reflect dietary Fe intake in Friesian cattle and buffaloes.