[Possibilities of oral iron supplementation for maintaining health status in calves]

Oral supply of 100 mg iron as bivalent cations per day effectively prevented clinical and subclinical symptoms of anaemia in calves. Additionally, male and female calves reached optimal growth values. The supplementation of iron to alleviate neonatal masked anaemia ("physiological anaemia") should start on the first day of life. This measure can be terminated at the end of the praeruminal stage of the development, as young calves are able to take up all ferric ions contained in the diet. The real extend of the iron deficiency of calves could not be determined by clinical symptoms. As a practical measure it is recommended to use the packed cell volume test.