Ginger Coats
in Dairy Cattle – The Facts in Black & White.
If your cows have a ginger tinge they will almost certainly have other problems that are costing you money and in these difficult days you can’t afford to have your herd’s efficiency adversely affected. A few minutes spent now reading this article could save you many thousands of pounds a year.
If your cattle have a ginger tinge you probably think that you have a copper deficiency problem. Whilst copper supplementation will be the solution to the problem, a lack of copper is not what is causing the symptom. This is best shown by the fact that even cattle with what Vets would call “normal” blood copper levels can and do get a ginger tinge in their coats. How can this classic copper deficiency symptom be induced in cows that on the face of it shouldn’t have the problem?
In order to understand this you need to know a bit about the metabolic processes that take place continuously inside your cattle. The cow produces chemicals that are needed by the body and gets rid of other chemicals that would harm the body. In order to do this, in many instances, enzymes are used and some of these enzymes need copper in order for them to function. We call these copper dependant enzymes.
The copper dependant enzyme Tyrosinase is used in the conversion of Tyrosine (an amino acid) into the black pigment Melanin. When the activity of this enzyme is depressed the production of Melanin is also reduced and as the hair grows it does so with a reduced amount of black pigment and appears ginger in normal light. In fact the ginger tinge is a good indicator that deactivation of copper enzymes is occurring.
Now we have two facts 1. Even cattle with “normal” copper levels can get ginger tinged coats and 2. In order for a cow to have such a coat the copper dependant enzyme tyrosinase has to have its activity arrested or reduced. What we need to find now is the mechanism that could allow both of these things to be true. Only molybdenum toxicity can explain this classic symptom of what we call copper deficiency.
When molybdenum combines with sulphur in the rumen it starts a chain reaction, producing thiomolybdate which must then combine with any copper that it finds. If it does not find enough copper in the diet it passes through into the blood where most of the copper is already present as part of copper dependant enzymes. If any thiomolybdate gets through to the blood it has a very strong chance of combining with copper in copper dependant enzymes and when it does it deactivates the enzyme permanently. The copper however is still there so a total copper measurement still includes it, but because this enzyme copper is combined with thiomolybdate it really shouldn’t be counted as it is now inactive.
If normally black pigmented cattle have a ginger tinge the herd is suffering from molybdenum toxicity which, by the time that it is showing up in the coat, will undoubtedly be adversely affecting fertility (bulling and embryo loss), milk production and growth in young stock. Even in cattle with what the Veterinary Laboratories Agency would describe as normal blood copper levels these clinical symptoms can be present due to being induced by molybdenum.
Measuring total blood copper provides no indication of how much of this copper has been reacted with molybdenum (in the form of thiomolybdate) remembering of course that over 90% of total blood copper is already there as part of enzymes. So if any of the copper has reacted with thiomolybdate this means that enzymes that are vital in many of the most economically important bodily functions are disabled. They are still there and the copper is still there to be measured, but that copper and those enzymes can no longer do the animal any good.
Black and white cattle should not have a ginger tinge and if they have then they have a molybdenum toxicity problem. Thiomolybdate is produced in the rumen and the best place to provide sacrificial copper, to detoxify it, is in the rumen. Of all of the methods of copper supplementation only Cosecure provides a constant stream of copper right where it is needed. Two boluses of Cosecure given to a cow will provide a long acting source of copper to detoxify the molybdenum on most farms in the UK. In extreme situations other sources of copper may be required in addition to Cosecure: your veterinary surgeon or nutrition consultant will be able to advise on this.
