Suspected Copper Deficiency in Cattle in Aberdeenshire

Abstract

IN a recent report1 it was shown that a scouring disease which affected cattle and sheep on reclaimed swamps and peaty soils in New Zealand was due to a deficiency of copper in the pasture. Affected animals showed low levels of copper in blood and liver ; the pasture contained only 2–5 p.p.m. of copper on a dry-matter basis compared with normal levels of 10 p.p.m. or more, and the disease could be controlled by administration of copper to the livestock or by top-dressing the pasture with fertilizers containing copper. This peat scours of New Zealand resembles the scouring disease in cattle attributed to copper deficiency on the sandy soils and reclaimed polders of Holland2,3.