GENERIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CALCIUM INTAKE AND RADIOSTRONTIUM TRANSFER TO THE MILK OF DAIRY RUMINANTS

The hypothesis is tested that there is a generic relationship between the calcium intake and the transfer of radiostrontium to milk which ca n be used for all dairy ruminants. In addition to the daily calcium in take, the relationship also requires values for the strontium to calci um observed ratio, which describes the discrimination in transfer of t he two elements to milk (a value of 0.11 is used), and the calcium con centration in milk. The relationship had previously only been validate d for dairy cattle as there were insufficient data for other ruminant species. Here, we present recently available data for dairy goats, and also a limited amount of data for sheep derived from the literature. From the comparison between these data and predicted values, we conclu de that it is possible to derive a generic model of the transfer of ra diostrontium to the milk of dairy ruminants.