The effect of vitamin C supplementation on plasma concentration and urinary excretion of vitamin C in cattle

Abstract

We investigated the plasma concentration and urinary excretion of vitamin C in cows supplemented with vitamin C. Five cows (mean BW = 597 kg) were allocated to a 5 x 5 Latin square design and supplemented with a vitamin C preparation coated with hydrogenated soybean oil at 0, 10, 20, 40, or 60 mg of vitamin C per kg of BW per day for 9 d. Plasma and urine samples were collected for measuring vitamin C concentration. Urinary excretion of vitamin C was expressed as the ratio of vitamin C to creatinine. Plasma vitamin C concentration and urinary vitamin C excretion increased quadratically as dietary vitamin C increased (P < 0.001); that is, the lowest dose affected neither plasma vitamin C concentration nor urinary vitamin C excretion but the plasma vitamin C concentration and urinary vitamin C excretion increased (P < 0.05) with increasing supplementation of vitamin C at greater doses. This suggests that plasma vitamin C concentration affects urinary excretion of vitamin C in cattle and that plasma vitamin C concentration exceeded the renal threshold for vitamin C in the cows receiving vitamin C at 20 mg/kg of BW per day. Furthermore, increased urinary excretion of vitamin C appears to limit plasma vitamin C concentration in response to vitamin C intake. The daily excretion of vitamin C was estimated by the reported value of daily creatinine excretion, indicating that the daily amount of vitamin C excreted into urine was more than half of supplied vitamin C. Therefore, a large part of supplied vitamin C probably escapes ruminal degradation and is absorbed but excreted into urine.

A Complex Interrelationship between Rectal Temperature and Dairy Cows’ Performance under Heat Stress Conditions

“…Our data indicated that VC concentration decreased significantly (P < 0.001) from the spring (2.96 mg/l) to the summer (1.79 mg/l). Other authors have reported similar results in [19]- [22]. The biosynthetic pathway for VC starts with the production of UDP glucose from glucose-1-phosphate in the liver.…”

Vitamin C Nutrition in Cattle

“…However, we reported that urinary excretion of VC, expressed as the ratio to creatinine, increased in beef cows as dietary AsA coated by a hydrogenated soybean oil increased (Figure 2, Padilla et al, 2007a). Therefore, similar to plasma VC concentrations, urinary excretion of VC likely demonstrates the adequacy of VC in cattle.…”

“…Hidiroglou (1999) reported that 40 g/d of AsA coated with ethyl cellulose increased plasma AsA concentration in cows. We investigated the effect of graded levels of dietary AsA coated with a hydrogenated soybean oil (0 to 36 g AsA/d, 0 to 60 mg AsA/kg BW/d) on plasma concentration and urinary excretion of VC in fattening beef cows, and our results indicated that these parameters increased as dietary VC increased (Figure 2, Padilla et al, 2007a); the lowest dose affected neither the plasma VC concentration nor urinary VC excretion, but the plasma VC concentration and urinary VC excretion increased with increasing doses of AsA supplementation.…”

Monitoring natural feed contamination in beef cattle by measurements of urinary zearalenone concentrations after oral administration of mycotoxin adsorbents as a top dressing

“…In the present study, urinary ZEN concentrations are expressed as their ratio to urinary Crea (urinary ZEN/urinary Crea [pg/mg Crea]) as previously described (Miles et al 1996;Padilla et al 2007).…”