The Development of Nutritional Anemia in Dairy Calves

Six pairs of Holstein male calves were used in a study of the susceptibility of calves to nutritional anemia when fed whole milk exclusively and of the effect of supplementing such a diet with inorganic iron and copper. Physical appearance, growth, determinations of the number of erythrocytes and amount of hemoglobin in the blood, and post-mortem examination showed that the calves on milk alone developed nutritional anemia while those receiving iron and copper in addition to milk did not. Considerable difference in appearance and size of the internal organs was revealed on post-mortem examination. Of particular interest in this connection was the marked difference in size of the testes and spleens, those of the calves receiving the mineral supplements being much larger. The livers of the calves fed iron and copper were found to contain large quantities of these two minerals as compared to the amounts found in the livers of calves fed milk exclusively.