HEALTH
TRACE ELEMENTS
Wesley Habershon from GWF Nutrition provides an overview of the importance of trace elements in camelid feed and the function of key minerals.
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complementary feeds Camelibra and Hembra & Cria have been formulated based on average known values to suit a broader spectrum of requirements given the mineral profile variations across the country. Some alternative formulations may also be available to those with crucial limitations.
s any alpaca owner will know, information on camelid nutrition can be limited, especially around vitamin, mineral and trace element intake. Often values are based on ruminant species and indeed many of the feeds sold on the market today have been initially formulated for other species and tweaked to suit the pseudo-ruminant camelid.
The purpose of this article is to look at the camelid's specific requirements and the various differences in organic, inorganic, hydroxy and chelated trace elements. The important trace elements we will focus on are zinc, copper, manganese and selenium. When speaking about minerals, trace elements and vitamins in both pseudoruminants and ruminants there are two key focuses: the microbial population in the foregut and the camelid itself. The microbial populations found in the foregut of the pseudo-ruminant do need some organic and inorganic minerals but it is the camelid supply which is of particular interest. Table 1 demonstrates the specific mineral, trace element and vitamin dietary targets for camelids. Practically mineral supplementation should be ground, loose or pelleted to aid intake as camelids cannot protrude their tongue to lick blocks.
How can we measure trace element supply? Forage or blood mineral profiling Once we know what we are aiming for there are a number of ways we can assess the mineral balance of the herd’s diet: • forage/hay mineral analysis • fresh grass mineral analysis • water mineral analysis • blood profiling of healthy animals can be helpful in observing your herd, although some mineral imbalances can be masked. Table 2 demonstrates the typical values of the organic mineral composition of a fresh grass sample and is a helpful starting point. By investigating and combining each herd’s limitations we can build up a picture of 24 Alpaca #93
Trace element forms Organic minerals
These tend to be the simple forms of minerals found in base raw materials such as hemp meal (see table 3). Organic minerals are easily available to the body. However, they can be vulnerable to binding with each other as with inorganic minerals, but to a lesser extent.
Inorganic minerals
deficiencies and antagonisms of the various minerals. It’s worth noting that these need to be applied with dry matter and fibre, and specifically neutral detergent fibre (NDF), intakes. A vital step for any owner is to take grass samples from across their holding (at least several samples mixed) to understand the lay of the land and any requirements that are potentially not being met. To put this into context, GWF Nutrition
The microbial population of the camelid does have a requirement for simple inorganic minerals but the traditional scattergun approach of feeding these minerals to meet an animal’s requirements in the hope that enough is absorbed is wasteful, potentially harmful and certainly not sustainable. Inorganic trace element salts dissolve into their ionic forms of cations and anions with the cations being bound to proteins and transported to the liver. However, with each step there are a number of limitations, a significant one being at the lumen where trace element solubility and secondly availability are affected by other forms of ions. For example, if zinc oxide and copper sulphate come into contact the copper and zinc will bind together within the digestive >> Continued on next page
Table 1: Suggested macro and micro-mineral concentrations in diets for camelids Macromineral
Requirement (%DM)
Micromineral
Requirement (%DM)
Calcium
0.2 - 0.75
Copper
9.0 - 12.0
Phosphorous
0.17 - 0.38
Cobalt
0.12 - 0.14
Magnesium
0.13 - 0.22
Iron
47.0 - 72.0
Potassium
0.6 - 0.96
Iodine
0.6 - 0.13
Sodium
0.07 - 0.14
Manganese
24.0 - 64.0
Chloride
0.15 - 0.25
Selenium
0.35 - 0.48
Sulphur
0.19 - 0.23
Zinc
35.0 - 54.0
Source: Van Saun (2009)
