Effect of Dietary Cadmium and Ethylenediaminetetraacetate on Dry Matter Digestibility and Organ Weights in Zinc Deficient and Normal Ruminants

Studies were conducted with 35 animals to determine whether addition of 350 ppm of cadmium (as CdCl~) or of 300 ppm of EDTA (as disodinm EDTA) affected dry matter digestibility or relative organ weights (as a percentage of body weight) of zinc-deficient calves or goats.In contrast with previous work, zinc-deficient animals had small but significantly lower dry matter digestibilities.Neither EDTA nor cadmium had a consistent or material effect on digestibility of a purified diet.Testicles of zinc-deficient goats were reduced in size.In general, tibiae were somewhat larger in zinc-deficient animals.Livers were larger in deficient goats but not in deficient calves.In some instances, lungs of zinc-deficient animals fed cadmium were larger relative to body size than those in animals given other treatments.Neither EDTA, cadmium, nor the zine deficiency materially and consistently affected size of kidney, heart, or spleen.The predominant influence of EDTA and cadmium on health, performance, and metabolism of young ruminants does not appear to be through an effect on dry matter digestibility and probably not by gross effects on sizes of the organs studied.Zinc deficiency severely reduces voluntary feed intake and growth of cattle and goats (10, 13).When given the same level of total feed intake as normal animals, zinc-deficient calves grow at a much slower rate and require considerably more feed per unit of gain (12).However, dry matter digestibility was not affected (14).Actual weights of extracted organs were less