“…Growth hormone (GH) is a growth promoter in several animal species (HART and JOHNSOI\I, 1986;GLUCKMAN et al, 1987), including calves (KIRCHGESSNER et al, 1987). It is well-known that secretion, metabolism and effects of G H and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) are dependent on nutritional status, especially energy and protein intak.e (PHILLIPS and UNTERMAN, 1984;BLUM et al, 1985;BREIER et al 1986;UNDERWOOD et al, 1986;RONGE and BLUM, 1989a;PELL and BATES, 1990;THISSEN et al, 1994) and modified by other nutritional factors such as zinc intake (HEINDL et al, 1993). hletabolic rate is reduced in Fe deficiency anaemia (DALLMAN, 1986), as also demonstrated in calves based on decreased oxygen consumption before and during physical performance (LINDT and BLUM, 1993;PIGUET et al, 1993).…”