Liver copper concentrations in cull cattle in the UK: are cattle being copper loaded?

Abstract

With the release of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs/Advisory Committee on Animal Feed Guidance Note for Supplementing Copper to Bovines it was noted that the current copper status of the national herd was not known. Liver samples were recovered from 510 cull cattle at a single abattoir across a period of three days. The samples were wet-ashed and liver copper concentrations determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis. Breed, age and previous location information were obtained from the British Cattle Movement Service. Dairy breeds had higher liver copper concentrations than beef breeds. Holstein-Friesian and ‘other’ dairy breeds had 38.3 per cent and 40 per cent of cattle above the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) reference range (8000 µmol/kg dry matter), respectively, whereas only 16.9 per cent of animals in the combined beef breeds exceeded this value. It was found that underlying topsoil copper concentration was not related to liver copper content and that age of the animal also had little effect on liver concentration. In conclusion, over 50 per cent of the liver samples tested had greater-than-normal concentrations of copper with almost 40 per cent of the female dairy cattle having liver copper concentrations above the AHVLA reference range, indicating that a significant proportion of the UK herd is at risk of chronic copper toxicity.

The efficacy of supplying supplemental cobalt, selenium and vitamin B 12 via the oral drench route in sheep

“…However, when comparing them to the calculated durations required for the different doses from the introduction the low and mid concentrations are longer than the required duration whereas the high dose is shorter than the required 192 day duration (Kendall and Bone, 2017) which determines actual cobalt intake would identify the difference between cobalt intake and recommended daily allowance (rda) to give a required supplementary rate. Supplementation regimens should be designed so that the supplement and background will fulfil the rda and should not be targeted to meet the MPL as variations within background diet and supplement release could mean that maximum permissible levels are exceeded and in some cases, especially in elements with lower toxicity thresholds and lower differences between MPL and rda such as copper and selenium increases in loading and potentially toxicities can occur (Kendall et al, 2015). Keener et al (1950) showed some recovery from Co deficiency in intravenously treated lambs after daily administration of cobalt sulphate (2,4 and 6 mg/day) giving a response in cobalt deficient sheep, however, higher doses are required and the first signs of recovery are shown much later.…”

Lamb deaths associated with administration of oral minerals

“…Kendall and others (2015) reported that more than half of 510 cull cattle had liver copper concentrations over the Nottingham University Veterinary Nutritional Analysis normal reference value of 5618 µmol/kg dry matter (DM). Their study highlighted potential overfeeding of copper and that a significant proportion of animals were at risk from chronic toxicity.…”

Copper Supplementation, A Challenge in Cattle

“…By contrast, cattle were traditionally thought to be more tolerant of copper accumulation and reports of copper poisoning were, until recently, somewhat rare (possibly underdiagnosed [ 9 ]). However, in recent years, an increased number of episodes/outbreaks of copper toxicity in cattle have been reported worldwide, particularly in dairy cattle [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. The growing number of lethal cases reported seems to indicate that intoxication is spreading silently in dairy herds, urging the development of strategies of monitoring herd copper status and amplifying the awareness of farmers about copper toxicity.…”

“…In fact, monitoring studies carried out on numerous samples from culled cattle collected in slaughterhouses and/or diagnostic laboratories have demonstrated that a large number of cows have hepatic copper concentrations well above the adequate/normal/physiological levels, and that they are at risk of chronic copper toxicity in many countries such as the UK [ 9 , 11 ], New Zealand [ 12 ], the USA [ 13 , 14 , 15 ], the Netherlands [ 16 ] and Spain [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Dairy cattle are most affected, particularly Holstein Friesian [ 11 , 15 ] and Jersey cows [ 12 , 21 ], and available temporal data show an alarming tendency for an increasing incidence of cases [ 12 ]. These trends are undoubtedly due to copper supplementation aimed at preventing copper deficiency, as dietary copper intake from pasture alone is unlikely to cause such accumulation in liver tissue [ 22 ].…”