Medycyna Wet. 65 (10), 679-682, 2009
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| Wójcik M., Martelli F., Bobowiec R., Patkowski K., Chałabis-Mazurek A., Wałkuska G. |
| Influence of diet cation-anion difference (DCAD) on plasma acid-base status in pregnant sheep |
| The last trimester of pregnancy in sheep is frequently associated with pregnancy toxemia, usually connected with ketonemia and metabolic acidosis. Because a changed diet cation-anion difference (DCAD) is able to change the values of plasma acid-base balance (ABB) the authors sought to determine what kind of shift in ABB values is induced by diets with different DCAD. The authors also compare the influence of two diets with a different DCAD on some reproduction parameters in sheep. Although both diets used in our experiment had a positive DCAD, one of them was more alcalemic (high-DCAD) and the other more acidemic (low-DCAD). In the group of sheep fed with a +214.5 mEq/kg DM DCAD diet, blood pH was higher than under +46.2 mEq/kg DM condition. Significant changes, especially in the 15th and 16th week of pregnancy were observed. Under a high-DCAD condition, anion gap (AG) was elevated to 19.6 ± 2.62 mEq/l. No significant changes of AG in low-DCAD fed animals were observed. The values of AG in this group ranged between 18.02 ± 3.68 mEq/l 19.15 ± 1.79 mEq/l. The feeding of sheep with +214.5 mEq/kg DM essentially resulted in negative values of a strong ion gap (SIG). In the second group, fed with lower DCAD, positive SIG (3.43 ± 0.55 mEq/l) occurred already in the 16th week of pregnancy. In this group of sheep, the litter size was higher and reached 1.29 ± 0.7. By employing forage with a known value of DCAD it is possible to influence not only on the health of sheep during the course of pregnancy but also to improve their reproductive parameters. |
| Keywords: diet cation-anion difference, metabolic acidosis, pregnancy, sheep |