Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Jabalpur, M. P.
Cobalt was determined in the samples of paddy straw collected in a survey. The element was found to be suboptimal in Assam and Orissa but optimal in the states of Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. Interpretation of the content of Co with Mo, Cu and Mn status was made. A controlled stall-feeding of paddy straw ration to cows and calves of Hariana breed was carried out to investigate the nutritional syndrome, which was recorded to be a macrocytic anaemia with low blood Ca, high P and low or near normal Cu. Low Cu and high P were suggestive of the disturbed Ca-P metabolism; hypo-cupraemia was only predominant in the adult group. Aberration in copper and possibly in cobalt metabolism may be an etiological factor in the development of bovine macrocytic anaemia.
