Trace mineral status of soil, feed and animal in Chhattisgarh state (India)

Trace element content of soil, feeds, blood plasma and faeces on randomly selected rural and urban farms was carried out. Since liver has been most reliable source of analyzing the status of Fe, Cu and Zn in grazing goats, the samples were collected from local slaughter house during rainy and dry seasons. In soil mean and range values for Fe and Mn were 202.97 ppm (79-410 ppm) and 61.03 ppm (19-123 ppm), respectively. The results suggested that soil Fe and Mn levels were found to be high. Fe contents of all feeds were extremely high and Mn contents were higher than the dietary requirement. Whereas mean and range values of Cu and Zn concentrations of soil were, 2.91 ppm (1.2-8.11 ppm) and 1.33 ppm (0.6-2.3 ppm), respectively. There were no considerable variations in the concentration of trace elements among the soil samples. However, a large proportion of feed samples were deficient in Cu and Zn. Blood plasma value of Fe in graded Jammunapari goats during rainy season were 2.02 ppm, while in dry season it was 1.83 ppm. In local desi non-descript goats Fe level during rainy season was 1.62 ppm and in dry season it was 1.81 ppm. The effect of season was statistically significant for all trace elements. The results suggested that more than half of animals were found to have low plasma Cu and Zn during the rainy season. Due to lack of any correlations between soil, pasture and blood plasma it is suggested that analyses of soils and pasture are not reliable for assessing the Fe, Cu and Zn status of grazing goats in the plains, plateau or hills. Analyses of liver and blood appear to provide better indices.