After an introductory survey of investigations dealing with the conversion of acetyl urea in the ruminant organism, a feeding trial using dairy cattle is described in which the effects of long-term acetyl urea feeding on the clinical picture and various performance parameters have been studied. Five Black-Pied cows of medium milk yield were fed a natural diet and received, over at least 14 months, a daily acetyl urea supplementation of 430 g (= 40 to 44% of the digestible crude protein). The clinical control, including the analysis of blood parameters, did not produce any deviation from normal. As to milk and butterfat yields, the experimental group reached results comparable to those of the control group. Over the entire experimental period the experimental group and the control averaged per cow and day of milking 11.1 and 11.3 kg FCM, respectively. The reproductive behaviour proved normal for all the cows under study. Postmortem findings of 4 cows revealed, among other things, chronic kidney alterations that cannot be safely exluded to be caused by the experiments. A stress over several months of two cows fed 850 g acetyl urea per day was not found to affect animal performance and health.

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4 male sheep (average weight: 53.5 kgs) were fed a semisynthetic diet containing acetamide as sole source of nitrogen. At the beginning of the trial twin-labelled 15N-14C-acetamide was administered by way of a ruminal fistula. The curve pattern of 14C activity in the TCE-soluble fraction of the ruminal fluid showed a synchronous behaviour in all animals beginning at 3 hours after the beginning of the trial. A half-life of 2 1/2 hours for the rate of absorption of 14C acetamide and deaminated 14C acetate was established from the decline in 14C activity observed in the TCE-soluble fraction of the ruminal fluid. The peak level of 14C labelling in ruminal proteins was reached after 6 hrs. The specific 14CO2 activity in respiratory air reached its maximum level after 4 hrs, and was then found to decline continuously. 56% of the administered amount of 14C was excreted over a period of up to 50 hrs after beginning of the trial. The very fact that the peak level of 14C activity was observed to appear in the TCE-soluble fraction of the blood plasma as early as after 1 hr seems to indicate that acetamide is also absorbed through the ruminal wall. The half-life of decline in the 14C activity of this fraction was 5.7 hrs. Analysis by thin layer chromatography showed that 75% of this amount of activity is present in 14C acetamide. The rate of 14C incorporation into blood plasma proteins reached a plateau region after 21 hrs, which was also maintained on the 2nd day of the experiment. 6.5% of the administered amount of 14C activity was excreted in the urine until the 7th day of experiment. 76.6% of the amount of urinary 14C activity excreted within a period of 48 hrs were voided as 14C acetamide. 3.8% of the administered amount of 14C activity was excreted with the faeces within the first 6 days of experiment.

2 experimental cows received isobutylidenedi urea added to a natural diet in amounts of 175 g (I) and 730 g (II) per day for a period of several weeks before the trial was started. On the 1st day of experiment the morning dose was labelled with 5.05 g of excess 15N. 8 hrs after the beginning of the trial of 15N level in the TCE soluble portion of blood plasma (TCE=trichloroacetic acid) increased and remained at an elevated level until the 36th hour of experiment. Similarly, the values for maximum urinary 15N concentrations were maintained for a prolonged period of time. Isobutylidenedi urea was excreted with the urine in rates related to its solubility. Only small percentages of the 15N intake were excreted in the TCE soluble portion of the milk (cow I: 0.03%; cow II: 0.05%). The 15N-labelling of milk protein provides evidence for the fact that nitrogen from IBDU is utilized for the synthesis of milk in the cows. The amount of urea in milk averaged 400 mg per litre. None of the milk samples tested contained IBDU.

Three fistula sheep with average weights of 52.2 kgs were given 37.9 g of 15N and 14C labelled acetamide (= 1.09 mg 15N' and 0,95 mCi14C) which were administered directly through the fistula. The half-life period of 15N retention in the ruminal fluid (TCE soluble portion) was found to be 4 hrs. 18 hrs after 15N administration increasing amounts of 15N were carried back to the rumen by way of the rumino-hepatic circulation. The 15N concentration in the blood (TCE soluble portion) rapidly increased up to a peak value and, from 3 hrs after isotope administration, the 15N concentration was found to decline continuously, with a slight discontinuation at about the 10th hr of experiment. The rate of 15N incorporation into the protein fraction (TEC soluble portion) of the blood was delayed by 4 hrs, relative to the rate of 15N incorporation into ruminal proteins. An average of 43.1% of the administered amount of 15N was excreted in the urine within 7 days. Up to the 4th day of experiment the half-life period of urinary 15N excretion was 19 hrs. An average of 15% of the administered total amount of 15N was excreted in the faeces. In this process, the peak values in both TCE fractions were observed to occur on the 2nd day of experiment. The proportion of isotope in the TCE soluble fraction was found to increase continuously compared with the total amount of the isotope excreted in the faeces. Isotope concentrations between 0.03 and 0.13 atom% of surplus 15N were found in organ and muscle tissues of a sheep that had been slaughtered 7 days after administration of the isotope. The results obtained are discussed on the basis of comparisons made with the analogous behaviour of 14C activity.