Performance and Vanadium Content of Tissues in Sheep as Influenced by Dietary Vanadium2

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Abstract
Twenty-four Florida native wethers averaging 37 kg initially were used in an 84-day study of dietary vanadium toxicity. Supplemental levels of 0, 10, 100, 200, 400 and 800 ppm vanadium as ammonium metavanadate were fed in a roughage, corn-soy diet to treatment groups of either five or two lambs each. Those animals offered the two highest levels of vanadium (400 and 800 ppm) ceased eating and exhibited diarrhea after an exposure of 1 day to the experimental diets. Subsequent feeding of the control diet to these sheep resulted in complete recovery within 5 to 8 days. No outward indications of toxicity were observed in sheep fed the lower levels of vanadium. For lambs fed 0, 10, 100 and 200 ppm vanadium, average daily gains were 214, 221, 216 and 225 g per day and were not influenced by treatment. Metacarpal bone, liver, kidney and muscle vanadium concentrations were highest (P<.05) when 200 ppm dietary vanadium was fed, with the greatest concentration in kidney. Levels of vanadium expressed in ppm on a dry tissue basis for liver were .12, .18, .96 and 2.81, respectively, for 0, 10, 100 and 200 ppm. The data indicate that vanadium is not markedly toxic when fed to growing lambs for an 84-day period at a level of 200 ppm or less

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