Amounts and distribution of mineral elements associated with liveweight gains of grazing red deer (Cervus elaphus)

Abstract

Fourteen red deer with liveweights ranging from 9.0 to 94.8 kg which had died from natural causes or were killed by barbiturate overdose were dissected, and the brain, lungs, heart, spleen, liver, kidney, pancreas, stomach, small intestine, hind gut, muscle, bone, skin and blood weighed and subsampled for mineral element determinations carried out by inductively coupled emission spectrometry. Total mineral element composition associated with each tissue was determined from the weight of tissue and its mineral concentration. Bone and muscle content were estimated using published equations derived from sheep. Data are presented on the concentrations and amounts of Ca, P, Mg, Na, K, Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn present in the organs, digestive tract, offal, muscle, bone and skin. Expressed as a percent of total mineral based on the empty body weight, bone contained 99% Ca, 88% P, 59% Na and 59% Mg; muscle contained 82% K, 62% Zn and 38% Fe. Soft tissues and organs usually contained less than 6% of a mineral element. In the case of Cu, the distribution between the liver, muscle and bone was 77, 8 and 3% for the neonatal calf and 24, 59 and 2% for the young adult. Each kilogram gain in liveweight was associated with 13.9 gCa, 10.7 gP, 0.53 gMg, 1.0 g Na, 2.4 g K, 0.91 mg Cu, 25.4 mg Zn, 43.0 mg Fe and 0.44 mg Mn.