URINARY ALLANTOIN - CREATININE RATIOS AS A DIETARY INDEX FOR ELK

This study was conducted to evaluate the relation between digestible d ry matter intake (DDMI) and urinary allantoin:creatinine (A:C) ratios in elk. The experiment was conducted from August 1993 through March 19 94 and involved 18, 2-year-old cow elk divided into 3 groups of 6 anim als each. Groups were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 dietary treatments i nvolving mixtures of alfalfa hay and pelleted rations providing digest ible dry matter intakes ranging from 1.2 to 4.0 kg/day. Animals were w eighed twice weekly and urine samples were collected from each animal at about 3-week intervals throughout the experiment for a total of 10 samples per animal. Animals fed an ad libitum diet gained as average o f 6.8% of their initial body mass (BM), while elk on 2 restricted diet ary treatments lost an average of 9.3 and 11.2% of their initial BM ov er the course of the experiment. A significant (P < 0.001) curvilinear relation between urinary A:C ratios and DDMI, consistent with observa tions with domestic ruminants, was detected. These results suggest tha t urinary A:C ratios may provide a useful diagnostic tool to study the DDMI of free-ranging elk.