Effects of parenteral supply of iron on RBC parameters, performance, and health in neonatal dairy calves.

The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of parenteral iron on red blood cell parameters, performance, and health in dairy Holstein calves. Twenty neonatal calves were equally divided at random into two groups, one of which served as controls. Care was taken to ensure homogeneity of sex, age, and general health status of the animals. The controls received a normal diet and water ad libitum, while the study animals were injected with 1 g iron as Fe-dextran 2 days after birth. A daily record was kept of the calves' weight and growth parameters. At periods of 24-48 h after birth and at 14, 28, and 42 days of age, jugular blood was drawn from all the experimental and control animals to measure the packed cell volume, red blood count, hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, and iron levels. At the start of the experiments, there were no significant differences between these parameters between the two study groups (p > 0.05). With time, significant differences were seen between most of the values measured (p < 0.05) except for the mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, and iron level. Significant differences were seen for total weight gain and mean daily weight gain, which were higher in the iron-supplemented group (p < 0.05).