Trace mineral concentrations and accretion rates in the empty body and body tissues of growing Fleckvieh (German Simmental) bulls

Aniela C Honig; Vivienne Inhuber; Hubert Spiekers; Wilhelm Windisch; Kay-Uwe Götz; Gerhard Strauß; Thomas Ettle

doi:10.5194/aab-66-265-2023

Trace mineral concentrations and accretion rates in the empty body and body tissues of growing Fleckvieh (German Simmental) bulls

Arch Anim Breed. 2023 Sep 19;66(3):265-273. doi: 10.5194/aab-66-265-2023. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Aniela C Honig¹, Vivienne Inhuber², Hubert Spiekers¹, Wilhelm Windisch², Kay-Uwe Götz³, Gerhard Strauß⁴, Thomas Ettle¹

Affiliations

¹ Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture, Institute for Animal Nutrition and Feed Management, Prof.-Duerrwaechter-Platz 3, 85586 Poing, Germany.
² Chair of Animal Nutrition, Technical University of Munich, Liesel-Beckmann-Strasse 2, 85354 Freising, Germany.
³ Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture, Institute for Animal Breeding, Prof.-Duerrwaechter-Platz 1, 85586 Poing, Germany.
⁴ Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture, Department of Laboratory Analytics, Lange Point 4, 85354 Freising, Germany.

Abstract

This research project aimed to generate basic data for specifying the trace mineral requirements of Fleckvieh (German Simmental) bulls. Hence, the concentrations of the trace minerals iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and manganese (Mn) in the empty-body and body tissue fractions of growing Fleckvieh bulls slaughtered at 120-780 kg live weight were determined. Results were used to calculate trace mineral accretion rates. Fe and Zn represented the largest shares in the animals' bodies. The Zn accretion increased, while Mn accretion steadily declined during cattle growth. Fe accretion attained a maximum at 400 kg live weight. Cu accretion declined until 600 kg live weight and then increased slightly afterwards. The provided data may be used to adjust the recommendations with respect to the trace mineral requirements of growing Fleckvieh bulls.