The Mineral Nutrition of Livestock

This new edition, published in its second edition in 1981, adheres to the framework laid down by the late Professor Underwood, but has been thoroughly revised by Neville Suttle. It begins with three chapters of general introduction on the physiological need for minerals, dietary sources of minerals and the principles governing detection of deficiencies. Several advances in the assessment of mineral availability are described and claims for enhanced availability for new chelated sources critically reviewed. The chapter on detection includes new physiological and biochemical definitions of the marginal band between a deficient and normal mineral status to improve the precision of diagnoses. In bringing the chapters on macro-minerals up-to-date, calcium and phosphorus are treated separately to acknowledge their distinctive metabolism outside the skeleton and new treatments, such as the use of acid diets for milk-fever, are described The contrasting features of phosphorus and magnesium nutrition in the ruminant and non-ruminant are drawn out and the unique need of the ruminant for elemental sulphur is stressed in a new chapter. With trace elements, a few chapters (eg. iron and mangane