Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary magnesium, nitrogen
and potassium on the hypomagnesemic syndrom in rats. Two hundred seventy male SpraguDawley rats weighing 50-{)0 g at the beginning wcre used in a 3x3x3 factorial treatment
design. The experiment thus included '27 treatments, with ten rats randamly allotted to each.
The experimental animals were fed diets in which the concentrations of Mg, N (as
protein) and K were varied. Mg levels covered the range from deficiency to dietary adequacy.
The symptoms of Mg deficiency, including skin lesions and lowered Mg contents of
blood, muscle and bone, occured more quikly or with greater severityon the Mg-deficient
diet when the levels of dietary N, supplied as casein, were increased from '2.2 to 3.0 or 3.8 %.
These observations indicate that the interferenee by N is quantitative rather than qualitative
and that presence of nitrate or other nonprotein nitrogen is not essentialto the depression of
Mg availability.
Elevated dietary K levels did not appear to influence the depressed weight gains and
feed conversions resulting from law-Mg high-)l' feeding, but they did aggravate the hypomagnesemia. it is suggested that dietary K influenees Mg metabolism separatcly, rather
than as part of the Mg-N interaction.
An increased serum calcium generally occurred coincident to hypomagnesemia in this
experiment, indicating that cakium is involved in same way in the Mg-)l' interaction. Dietary K levcls did not influence serum cakium concentrations.