Reactive oxygen metabolites generated during normal metabolism and metabolism stimulated by xenobiotics can enter into reactions that, when uncontrolled, can impair performance of dairy cows. Direct effects include peroxidative changes in membranes and other cellular components. Indirectly, competitive consumption of reducing equivalents can interfere with important metabolic functions and divert glucose from other pathways by inducing the monophosphate shunt. Normally, the body is protected by a wide range of antioxidant systems working in concert. Metal catalysts of oxidative reactions are removed in intracellular fluids by metal-binding macromolecules. Superoxide dismutases, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase within cells remove superoxide and peroxides before they react with metal catalysis to form more reactive species. Finally, peroxidative chain reactions initiated by reactive species that escaped enzymatic degradation are terminated by chain-breaking antioxidants, including water-soluble ascorbate, glutathione, and urate and lipid-soluble vitamin E, ubiquinone, and beta-carotene. To optimize performance, oxidative stress in high producing cows must be controlled by supplying all known antioxidant nutrients and by minimizing effects of substances that stimulate reactive oxygen metabolites.

Possible relationships among dietary antioxidants, oxidative status, and placental retention were investigated in periparturient dairy cows. During 6 wk prepartum, 16 cows each were given daily by capsule 1000 IU of vitamin E, 3 mg of Se, both vitamin E and Se, or neither (control). alpha-Tocopherol in serum and fast-acting antioxidants in plasma increased, but, in red blood cells, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances decreased during the last 6 wk before parturition in cows given vitamin E. These measurements were unaffected by supplementation of Se. Cows that had retained placenta > or = 12 h had lower fast-acting antioxidants in plasma and glutathione peroxidase in red blood cells up to 2 wk before calving than did cows that shed fetal membranes in < 12 h. Results suggest that inadequate dietary antioxidants may increase oxidative stress, production of lipid peroxides, and incidence of retained fetal membranes in dairy cows.

Titanium metabolism was measured in three 18 kg lambs each fed 450 g chopped hay daily. Two of the lambs were dosed orally and one intravenously with 3 muCi titanium-44 each. Clearance of the intravenous dose was extremely slow; after oral administration, however, no titanium-44 was detected in blood plasma for 48 h. Over 96% of the oral dose was recovered in feces and digestive tract contents. Titanium-44 absorption, estimated from total carcass recovery and by comparison of concentrations in internal organs of orally and intravenously dosed lambs, was less than .5%. Fecal titanium could be a satisfactory index of soil ingestion by grazing ruminants.

Cations and immunoreactive insulin in plasma were measured in 35 lactating cows moved abruptly to early spring pasture. After change of cows from grass-clover hay to fescue-bluegrass pasture containing 22 to 31 g potassium/kg dry matter, immunoreactive insulin of 5 Holstein cows increased 30% in 5 days and averaged 45% above prepasture concentrations for 40 days. Magnesium averaged 44% below prepasture content of plasma during this period and was correlated negatively with potassium -.17 and immunoreactive insulin -.37. Thirty Herford cows were changed from corn silage and grass-clover hay to wheat-rye pasture containing 3.06% potassium in the dry matter. Each day on pasture, 10 cows each were fed 2.3 kg cornmeal, 10 were given 30 g magnesium oxide by capsule, and 10 were given no supplement. After unsupplemented cows were moved to pasture, immunoreactive insulin rose 51% in 8 days and plasma magnesium fell 24%. Both supplements reduced immunoreactive insulin, but magnesium was maintained higher by magnesium oxide than by cornmeal. Injection of two Holstein cows with insulin (2 IU/kg body weight) reduced plasma concentrations of both potassium and magnesium 20% below that of two cows injected with only physiological saline. Whether elevated plasma insulin may accelerate development of hypomagnesemia in cattle on spring pasture with relatively high potassium content has not been established.