REPEATABILITY OF MINERAL ELEMENT CONTENT IN THE FUR OF FEMALE STANDARD COYPUS

The objective of this paper was to study repeatability of mineral comp osition of the fur in female standard coypus in relation to their phys iological condition. Experimentation took place at an Experimental Far m for Fur-bearing Animals of the Research Institute of Animal Producti on at Nitra. The trial involved 19 females of standard coypus. The ani mals were housed in halls, in one-storey cages with pools. They receiv ed granular feed mix KK (produced by Cataj Cooperative Farm), and alfa lfa (in the spring-summer period) and fodder beet (in the fall-winter period) as a saturation supplement. The concentrations of Ca, K, Na, M g, Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Co in the fur of female coypus were examined in sel ected body regions, i.e. in the middle of the dorsal and ventral regio ns, in relation to their physiological condition (periods): 1. primipa ras - sexual maturity, age of 8 months - fur maturity stage, 2. female s on the day of parturition, 3. females on the day of young weaning. F ur samples (ca. 2 g) were taken by clipping. Concentrations of mineral elements were determined by atomic absorption spectrum photometry. Re peatability of the separate elements in the fur of standard coypus in the body regions as well as in the physiological periods was very high , and it was in fact higher than 0.95 and/or or 0.99 in almost all ele ments. Average Ca content in the dorsal region was 1 754,56 +/- 95.49 mg/kg dry matter, in the ventral region 1 756.79 +/- 102.80 mg/kg dry matter, K content in the dorsal region amounted to 578.60 +/- 50.01 mg /kg dry matter and in the ventral region to 257.99 +/- 26.35 mg/kg dry matter, Na content in the dorsal region made 300.88 +/- 19.95 mg/kg d ry matter and in the ventral region 130.91 +/- 11.23 mg/kg dry matter, Mg content in the dorsal region was 629.48 +/- 41.77 and in the ventr al region 656.66 +/- 45.22 mg/kg dry matter, Fe content in the dorsal region amounted to 150.79 +/- 13.95 and in the ventral region to 173.7 4 +/- 13.10, respective Zn contents were 150.97 +/- 2.20 and 160.41 +/ - 3.73 mg/kg dry matter, Cu content in the dorsal region made 5.9121 /- 0.2268 and in the ventral region 7.4095 +/- 0.3092, respective Mn c ontents amounted to 2.4895 +/- 1.732 and 5.3811 +/- 0.3353 mg/kg dry m atter, Co contents had the values of 0.7616 +/- 0.0332 and 0.6758 +/- 0.0375 mg/kg dry matter. Comparison of repeatability coefficients, alt hough three repeated measurements of the animals were done, shows that repeatability of mineral element contents in the fur of standard coyp us is high, for the body regions, the separate periods and in total. H ence it can be deduced that the contents of minerals are more or less constant taking into account only scarce differences between the perio ds. A conclusion can be drawn from our results that the mineral compos ition of fur in adult female coypus varies in relation to age, genotyp e and physiological stage. The experimental results suggest that the f ur is a suitable subject for investigation within research on mineral metabolism and physiological and pathological changes in the animal or ganisms.