[Relation between glycemia, serum ascorbic acid, and weight gains in calves in large barns]

In the period from acceptance to the large-scale calf-house to six months of age, 42 calves (20 bullocks and 22 heifers) were studied for the dependence between the dynamics of glycaemia, ascorbaemia, and weights and weight gains. In both sexes, the highest level of glycaemia was obtained at the age from 14 to 21 days (kappa = 5.3 mmol.1(-1)). This high level was followed by a gradual decrease which resulted in the statistically significantly lowest average level at the age of six months (2.0 mmol.1(-1)). In heifers the level of glucose decreased to 1.7 mmol.1(-1) in the fifth month; in bullocks the values were significantly higher at this age (2.8 mmol.1(-1)). The values were subjected to correlation analysis and regression analysis, but no statistically significant dependence was found between weight gains and the levels of glycaemia, either in heifers or in bullocks. Higher coefficients of correlation were only found between the weight of the calves when accepted to the calf-house and the level of glucose. The ascorbaemia of the calves of both sexes at the age from the 7th to the 11th week ranged from 59.1 to 79.5 mumol.1(-1); from the fourth month of age it decreased conspicuously, the lowest values being obtained in the fifth month (22.7 mumol.1(-1)) when the values of vitamin C in the blood serum of heifers (11.4 mumol.1(-1)) were lower than in the bullocks. The correlations between the weight gains and ascorbaemia were statistically significantly negative in the bullocks between the second and 22nd week of age.