Premium
Effects of dietary ruminally protected l ‐carnitine on plasma metabolites in sheep following a sub‐lethal ammonia challenge
Author(s) -
Walker D. K.,
Lambert B. D.,
Woodworth J. C.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of animal physiology and animal nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.651
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1439-0396
pISSN - 0931-2439
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0396.2005.00563.x
Subject(s) - chemistry , ammonia , carnitine , urea , plasma concentration , zoology , medicine , blood plasma , endocrinology , chromatography , biochemistry , biology
Summary In Experiment 1 , lambs were randomly assigned to 0.25, 1.00, 2.50, 5.00 and 10.00 g/day of dietary ruminally protected l ‐carnitine (RPLC) and were allowed to adapt for 20 days. Plasma samples were obtained at 0, 120 and 240 min after RPLC feeding. Plasma l ‐carnitine (LC) concentrations increased (p < 0.01) for all levels of RPLC treatment, however, no differences were observed due to level of RPLC or time. Plasma LC concentrations were 27.05 and 57.83 μ mol/l for baseline and pooled RPLC treated sheep, respectively. In Experiment 2 , lambs were randomly assigned to 0, 0.125, 1.06 and 2.0 g/day of RPLC and were adapted as in Experiment 1 . Plasma was collected at 0, 15, 30, 60, 90, 180, 240 and 360 min after oral ammonia challenge (300 mg/kg BW urea). Plasma LC concentrations increased with treatment relative to control (p < 0.01). Plasma LC concentrations were 35.7, 44.2, 60.5 and 65.7 μ mol/l for the 0, 0.125, 1.06 and 2.0 g/day treatments, respectively. RPLC tended to decrease plasma ammonia at some time points (time × treatment; p = 0.10). We conclude that RPLC increased plasma LC concentrations, but had only modest effects on plasma ammonia concentrations and had no effect on plasma urea or glucose concentrations.