Mineral composition and rates of flow of effluent from the distal ileum of liquid-fed calves

The effect of different diets including those containing soya-bean products, on digesta movement and water and nitrogen absorption in the small intestine of the pre-ruminant calf

1. Preruminant calves, fistulated in the abomassum and distal ileum, were given by infusion into the abomasum, at intervals of 2-3 d, single experimental feeds of cow's milk or a synthetic milk diet in which the protein source was casein or a soya-bean product. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) and phenol red were included as markers. 2. After infusion of the experimental feed, measurements were made of transit time from proximal duodenum to distal ileum and mean ileal flow-rates for the first 3 and 21 h after food residues reached the distal ileum. PEG recoveries for these two periods and net nitrogen absorption up to the distal ileum were also determined. In some experiments sodium, potassium and magnesium concentrations and numbers of viable bacteria in ileal digesta were determined. 3. Measurements of passage of digesta, recovery of marker and net N absorption did not differ greatly between calves given cow's milk and the synthetic milk diet containing casein. Compared to the casein-based diet, a diet based on heated soya-bean flour given to a calf for the first or second time produced a somewhat higher ileal flow-rate and a significantly lower net N absorption. Net N absorption was even lower when a calf received a diet containing unheated soya-bean flour. 4. Calves given the diet containing heated soya-bean flour on several occasions appeared to develop a sensitivity to the flour, and after further feeds containing it they had significantly higher rates of ileal flow (accompanied by correspondingly high rates of Na and K flow), lower small intestine transit times and lower net N absorption values than similarly fed unsensitized calves. They also had significantly lower rates of passage of marker in the first few hours after food residues reached the ileum, indicating inhibition of abomasal emptying. Over all, the changes indicated a severe disturbance in digestive function which was not caused by abnormal bacterial growth and may have been due to a gastrointestinal allergy. 5. Diets prepared from water-extracted flour and from soya-bean-protein isolate also led to digestive disturbances in sensitized calves, but those containing concentrates prepared by extracting soya-bean meal with hot aqueous ethanol did not.

Binding of magnesium and calcium in the contents of the small intestine of the calf

1. In ileal contents from differently fed ruminating calves, examined under conditions approximating to those obtaining in vivo, 34–74% of the magnesium and 63–93% of the calcium were non-ultrafilterable. The binding was shown to be due to at least two processes, one depending on the presence of phosphate, the other not. 2. Considerable non-phosphate binding occurred in samples adjusted in vitro to pH 5.5 and above. The binding material was probably not a single substance but the bound forms of both Mg and Ca were, at least partly, in equilibrium with the soluble forms, and some competition between the two metals occurred. Thus in any one sample the extent of binding for either metal was influenced by the concentration of both. With normal concentrations it was estimated that, in the ileum, about one-third of the Mg and half of the Ca was bound in this way, irrespective of whether pasture or one of a variety of stall diets was given. 3. Samples adjusted to about pH 6.5 and above (in vivo ileum pH was about 7.4–7.9) showed further precipitation of Ca and Mg to an extent which partly depended on the concentration of inorganic phosphate. Ca precipitation appeared to be mainly controlled by the concentration of Ca and inorganic phosphate but for Mg the precipitation depended also on the presence of factors other than Mg and inorganic phosphate. One such factor found to be present was the ammonium ion, but its practical importance is uncertain. 4. Ileal contents from milk-fed calves showed considerable non-phosphate binding of Ca but not of Mg.