Anaemia in housed lambs: Effects of oral iron on clinical pathology and performance

An experiment including 39 pairs of housed twin lambs was performed to eval uate the effect of an oral iron supplement (Fe-MAX(R) Starter) on clinical pathology, growth rates and disease occurrence. Significant differences bet ween the iron supplemented group (Fe-group) and the controls were seen, for varying periods of time, for all red blood cell and iron parameters examin ed. In spite of this, 25% of the iron supplemented lambs had haemoglobin va lues below 80 g/L 4 weeks after treatment, whereas 33% of the controls had corresponding values 3 weeks after treatment, indicating that one single ir on dose was insufficient to prevent iron deficiency anaemia. No significant positive effect on live weights was seen. However, the Fe-group had a poor er daily weight gain during the first week after dosing (p<0.01), but a bet ter daily gain during the second (p<0.01) and third weeks. No effects were seen on disease occurrence. An additional trial with iron dextran injection s to 5 untreated 21 days old lambs with varying haemoglobin values, reveale d a rapid increase in the red cell distribution in anaemic lambs, with prod uction of macrocytic, mainly normochromic erythrocytes. The new erythrocyte population was visible on the cytogram after 2 to 3 days and on the histog ram after 5 days.