Phalangeal bone ash as an aid in diagnosing some nutritional causes of lameness in sheep

Normal bone ash levels were determined on first phalangeal bones from lambs dying of acute causes and from abattoir specimens. First phalanges were chosen because they represent a whole bone thereby ensuring constant and natural proportion which would be difficult if sampling only a portion of a bone. No practical difference in percentage ash, expressed in terms of green bone weight, was found between fore or hind feet of young male or female sheep. Consequently a single regression equation can adequately express the relationship between bone ash and bone length for sheep up to about 9 months of age. Lambs suffering from hypocuprotic osteoporosis or osteodystrophy consistent with hypovitaminosis D have phalangeal bone ash values which tend to lie outside the lower range expected for normal sheep with first phalanges of similar length. Consequently bone ash can be a useful aid in the diagnosis of certain nutritional causes of lameness in sheep.