Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:43:21.396Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sheep deficient in vitamin E preferentially select for a feed with a higher concentration of vitamin E

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2015

D. E. Amanoel ,
D. T. Thomas ,
D. Blache ,
J. T. B. Milton ,
M. G. Wilmot ,
D. K. Revell  and
H. C. Norman
D. E. Amanoel
Affiliation:
School of Animal Biology (M085), Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, WA 6009, Australia CSIRO Agriculture Flagship, Private Bag 5, Wembley, WA 6913, Australia
D. T. Thomas
Affiliation:
CSIRO Agriculture Flagship, Private Bag 5, Wembley, WA 6913, Australia
D. Blache
Affiliation:
School of Animal Biology (M085), Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, WA 6009, Australia
J. T. B. Milton
Affiliation:
School of Animal Biology (M085), Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, WA 6009, Australia
M. G. Wilmot
Affiliation:
CSIRO Agriculture Flagship, Private Bag 5, Wembley, WA 6913, Australia
D. K. Revell
Affiliation:
School of Animal Biology (M085), Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, WA 6009, Australia
H. C. Norman*
Affiliation:
CSIRO Agriculture Flagship, Private Bag 5, Wembley, WA 6913, Australia
*
†E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Given the capacity of ruminants to modify diet selection based on metabolic needs, we hypothesised that, when given a choice, lambs experiencing a vitamin E deficiency would consume more of a vitamin E-enriched feed than lambs not deficient in vitamin E. Fifty-six Dohne Merino lambs were divided into two groups and fed either a vitamin E-deficient diet over 40 days to induce low plasma vitamin E or a vitamin E-enriched diet to induce high plasma vitamin E. The lambs were then offered a choice of vitamin E-enriched and vitamin E-deficient pellets. For half of the animals, the enriched diet was paired with strawberry flavour and the deficient diet was paired with orange flavour, while the reverse pairings were offered to the others. Lamb preference for the diets was measured daily for the following 15 days. There was a three-way interaction between the high and low vitamin E treatment groups×vitamin E content and type of flavour in the feed×time (days). The lambs preferred pellets flavoured with strawberry but this preference changed to orange flavour in vitamin E-deficient lambs if the orange flavour was paired with high vitamin E. Lambs without a deficiency continued to prefer strawberry-flavoured pellets, regardless of the vitamin E concentrations in the pellets. It is possible that self-learning contributed to the low vitamin E group of lambs changing preference to orange flavour in order to consume more vitamin E, presumably to remediate the deficiency.

Keywords

vitamin E deficiencynutritional wisdomvoluntary feed intakepost-ingestive feedbacksaltbush (Atriplex spp.)
Type
Research Article
Information
animal , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , February 2016 , pp. 183 - 191
Copyright
© The Animal Consortium 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agricultural Research Council 1980. The nutrient requirements of ruminant livestock. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, Slough; UK.Google Scholar
Arnold, G 1964. Some principles in the investigation of selective grazing. Proceedings of the 5th Australian Society of Animal Production Conference, August 1964, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, pp. 258–271.Google Scholar
Bach, A, Villalba, JJ and Ipharraguerre, IR 2012. Interactions between mild nutrient imbalance and taste preferences in young ruminants. Journal of Animal Science 90, 1015–1025.Google Scholar
Bampidis, VA and Robinson, PH 2006. Citrus by-products as ruminant feeds: a review. Animal Feed Science and Technology 128, 175–217.Google Scholar
Bernard, R and Halpern, B 1968. Taste changes in vitamin A deficiency. Journal of General Physiology 52, 444–464.Google Scholar
Blair-West, JR, Denton, DA, McKinley, MJ, Radden, BG, Ramshaw, EH and Wark, JD 1992. Behavioral and tissue responses to severe phosphorus depletion in cattle. American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 263, 656–663.Google Scholar
Colebrook, WF, Black, JL, Purser, DB, Collins, WJ and Rossiter, RC 1990. Factors affecting diet selection by sheep. V. Observed and predicted preference ranking for six cultivars of subterranean clover. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 41, 957–967.Google Scholar
Duncan, AJ, Elwert, C, Villalba, JJ, Yearsley, J, Pouloupoulou, I and Gordon, IJ 2007. How does pattern of feeding and rate of nutrient delivery influence conditioned food preferences? Oecologia 153, 617–624.Google Scholar
Duncan, AJ and Young, SA 2002. Can goats learn about foods through conditioned food aversions and preferences when multiple food options are simultaneously available? Journal of Animal Science 80, 2091–2098.Google Scholar
Forbes, JM and Provenza, FD 2000. Integration of learning and metabolic signals into a theory of dietary choice and food intake. In Ruminant Physiology: Digestion, Metabolism, Growth and Reproduction (ed. PB Cronje), pp. 3–20. CAB International, Wallingford, UK.Google Scholar
Freer, M and Dove, H 2002. Sheep nutrition. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia.Google Scholar
Fry, JM, Allen, JG, Speijers, EJ and Roberts, WD 1994. Muscle enzymes in the diagnosis of ovine weaner nutritional myopathy. Australian Veterinary Journal 71, 146–150.Google Scholar
Gabbedy, BJ, Masters, H and Boddington, EB 1977. White muscle disease of sheep and associated tissue selenium levels in Western Australia. Australian Veterinary Journal 53, 482–484.Google Scholar
Ginane, C, Duncan, AJ, Young, SA, Elston, DA and Gordon, IJ 2005. Herbivore diet selection in response to simulated variation in nutrient rewards and plant secondary compounds. Animal Behaviour 69, 541–550.Google Scholar
Howery, LD, Provenza, FD and Burritt, B 2010. Rangeland herbivores learn to forage in a world where the only constant is change. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.Google Scholar
Masters, DG, Revell, D and Norman, H 2010. Managing livestock in degrading environments. In Sustainable improvement of animal production and health (ed. NE Odongo, M Garcia and GJ Viljoen), pp. 255–277. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy.Google Scholar
McMeniman, JP, Rivera, JD, Schlegel, P, Rounds, W and Galyean, ML 2006. Effects of an artificial sweetener on health, performance, and dietary preference of feedlot cattle. Journal of Animal Science 84, 2491–2500.Google Scholar
McMurray, CH and Blanchflower, W 1979. Application of a high-performance liquid chromatographic fluorescence method for the rapid determination of alpha-tocopherol in the plasma of cattle and pigs and its comparison with direct fluorescence and high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection methods. Journal of Chromatography 178, 525–531.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norman, HC, Masters, DG and Barrett-Lennard, EG 2013. Halophytes as forages in saline landscapes: interactions between plant genotype and their environment change their feeding value to ruminants. Journal Experimental and Environmental Botany 92, 96–109.Google Scholar
Pearce, KL, Masters, DG, Smith, GM, Jacob, RH and Pethick, DW 2005. Plasma and tissue α-tocopherol concentrations and meat colour stability in sheep grazing saltbush (Atriplex spp.). Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 56, 663–672.Google Scholar
Pearce, KL, Norman, HC and Hopkins, DL 2010. The role of saltbush-based pasture systems for the production of high quality sheep and goat meat. Small Ruminant Research 91, 29–38.Google Scholar
Phy, TS and Provenza, FD 1998. Sheep fed grain prefer foods and solutions that attenuate acidosis. Journal of Animal Science 76, 954–960.Google Scholar
Provenza, FD 1995. Postingestive feedback as an elementary determinant of food preference and intake in ruminants. Journal of Range Management 48, 2–17.Google Scholar
Provenza, FD and Balph, DF 1990. Applicability of five diet-selection models to various foraging challenges ruminants encounters. In Behavioural mechanisms of food selection (ed. RN Hughes), pp. 423–459. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany.Google Scholar
Smith, GM, Fry, JM, Allen, JG and Costa, ND 1994. Plasma indicators of muscle damage in a model of nutritional myopathy in weaner sheep. Australian Veterinary Journal 71, 12–17.Google Scholar
Steele, P, Peet, RL, Skirrow, S, Hopkinson, W and Masters, HG 1980. Low alpha-tocopherol levels in livers of weaner sheep with nutritional myopathy. Australian Veterinary Journal 56, 529–532.Google Scholar
Tribe, D and Gordon, J 1953. Choice of diet by rats deficient in members of the vitamin B complex. British Journal of Nutrition 7, 197–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Villalba, JJ and Provenza, FD 1997a. Preference for wheat straw by lambs conditioned with intraruminal infusions of starch. British Journal of Nutrition 77, 287–297.Google Scholar
Villalba, JJ and Provenza, FD 2001. Preference for polyethylene glycol by sheep fed a quebracho tannin diet. Journal of Animal Science 79, 2066–2074.Google Scholar
Villalba, JJ, Provenza, FD and Hall, JO 2008. Learned appetites for calcium, phosphorus, and sodium in sheep. Journal of Animal Science 86, 738–747.Google Scholar
Villalba, JJ, Provenza, FD, Hall, JO and Lisonbee, LD 2010. Selection of tannins by sheep in response to gastrointestinal nematode infection. Journal of Animal Science 88, 2189–2198.Google Scholar
Villalba, JJ, Provenza, FD, Hall, JO and Peterson, C 2006b. Phosphorus appetite in sheep: dissociating taste from postingestive effects. Journal of Animal Science 84, 2213–2223.Google Scholar
Villalba, JJ, Provenza, FD and Shaw, R 2006a. Sheep self-medicate when challenged with illness-inducing foods. Animal Behaviour 71, 1131–1139.Google Scholar
White, CL and Rewell, L 2007. Vitamin E and selenium status of sheep during autumn in Western Australia and its relationship to the incidence of apparent white muscle disease. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 47, 535–543.Google Scholar