Vitamin D intakes by cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) and associatedserum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations

Rickets and osteomalacia have been reported frequently in captive callitric hids. Some have assumed that these conditions are a consequence of unmet, u nusually high requirements for vitamin D and that these high requirements a re characteristic of all New World primates. As a consequence, certain comm ercial diets formulated for New World primates contain such high concentrat ions of vitamin D that their consumption by other species has resulted in s igns of vitamin D toxicity. This study was conducted to assess the vitamin D status of captive cotton-top tamarins consuming diets providing either 2, 500 or 26,000 IU of vitamin D-3/kg dry matter. These diets had been consume d for at least 2 years before the study, with the lower Vitamin D intakes b y six tamarins (0.5 to 9 years old) in a zoo colony and the higher vitamin D intakes by 24 tamarins (2 to 12 years old) in a pharmaceutical research l aboratory Although not measured in this study, none of the dietary ingredie nts has been shown to contain vitamin D-2. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH )D) concentrations in the captive tamarins were compared with serum 25(OH)D concentrations (range, 25.5-120 ng/mL; 64-300 nmol/L) reported by others i n healthy wild tamarins in Colombia, South America. Concentrations of 25(OH )D in serum from zoo tamarins consuming 2,500 IU vitamin D-3/kg dietary dry matter ranged from 48 to 236 ng/mL, (120-590 nmol/ L), whereas those in se rum from laboratory tamarins fed 26,000 IU vitamin D-3/kg dietary dry matte r ranged from 11 to 560 ng/mL. (28-1, 400 nmol/L), with no significant (P > 0.05) association between serum 25(OH)D concentration and sex or age. Howe ver, in the laboratory tamarins, serum 25(OH)D concentrations ranged from 4 6 to 60 ng/mL (115-150 nmol/L) in one 8-year-old male and four 12-year-old females that had four to nine pregnancies each. Younger females (2-5 years old) that had zero or one pregnancy and the other males (3-12 years old) ge nerally had serum 25(OH)D concentrations above 126 ng/mL (315 nmol/L). None of the individuals in the zoo colony showed signs of colitis. Of the two t amarins in the laboratory group with 25(OH)D levels below 50 ng/mL (125 nmo l/L), one was a 4-year-old male with anorexia and cachexia associated with severe colitis. The second was a 7-year-old clinically normal, multiparous (five) female with normal hematology and clinical chemistry but histologic evidence of severe colitis. Because all other individuals in this group had histologic evidence of moderate to severe colitis but were normal in other respects, an unequivocal association between low serum 25(OH)D concentrati ons and colitis was not apparent. A dietary vitamin D-3 concentration of 2, 500 IU/kg dry matter was more than sufficient to support serum 25(OH)D conc entrations equivalent to those found in the wild and, although the number o f observations was small, supported apparently normal growth and adult weig hts, reproduction through five parities, and general health in a zoo colony showing no evidence of colitis. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.