Copper is necessary to all mammals. Calling it a poison is tarring a
vital nutrient with an apparently uninformed brush. Blood tests are not
the best way to determine the copper status of the animal. Liver
analysis is. Blood tells you what is circulating at the moment, but
liver tells you what the actual copper status of the animal is.
Sheep metabolize copper differently than other mammals. Some breeds are
much more sensitive to copper than others, notably the meat breeds,
which is why it is so broadly shunned as a feed additive. Merino sheep,
with their huge output of wool, generally require more copper than meat
sheep, such as Texel, which is critically sensitive to copper
supplementation.
One species, one recommendation. Wrong. Each breed tolerates/requires
copper differently. The same is true with certain breeds of dogs.
Other minerals that are toxic in excess are:
Selenium, which is required at much lower levels than copper, 1-2 ppm as
opposed to copper's 8-12 ppm (baseline), and yet we supplement freely
without knowing the actual physiological selenium status of the animal.
Iron, which ties up copper and destroys vitamin E when in excess
Sulphur, which in excess makes copper unavailable, but without which
Selenium cannot be metabolized. You give a vitamin E/selenium injection
without knowing the sulphur status of the animal. Could be the vitamin
E/selenium is passing right out through the kidneys, since soil sulphur
levels are frequently low.
Zinc, which makes copper unavailable when present in excess, but the
reverse is not true.
Molybdenum, which binds with copper and sulphur to create thiomolybdates
in the rumen and renders the copper unavailable to the body.
Potassium, which in excess binds with magnesium and makes it unavailable
(think grass tetany)
Iodine, which is not a mineral, but in excess or difficiency causes
goiter. In manmade form it can kill - in natural form, excesses are
apparently passed out of the body harmlessly.
This is only a partial list.
Copper is required for the following:
Immune response (to parasites and disease, including sore mouth and foot
rot)
Bone deposition
Wool/hair/horn strength/pigmentation
Neurological development of the fetus
Iron metabolism. Yes, too much iron is toxic and locks up copper, but
in balance, copper is necessary for the body to use iron. So, if an
animal is anemic, it may not be worms. If the animal was copper
deficient, a dose of iron would not help the animal's anemia, it would
just destroy more vitamin E. The animal could actually be copper
deficient because without copper, the animal cannot metabolize iron.
Anemia can also be caused by a cobalt deficiency, in which case it will
respond to injections of vitamin B-12.
Normal Estrus
Chronic cases of unexplained scours have been cured in some instances
with additional copper.
Scouring is not genetic. Diarrhea is nature's way of trying to hurry
toxins out of the body. Or it is a sign of a gut that is permanently
damaged, most likely by parasites (coccidiosis) or on occasion, Johne's
disease.
Subclinical deficiencies of copper can be very difficult to detect
because they may mimic other deficiencies/diseases.
The dangers of copper lurk in not understanding it. There are forms
that will quickly assimilate into the blood and kill an animal. There
are other forms that have extremely low bioavailability. Yes, in excess
and out of balance with other minerals, it is a poison. A deficiency is
easily as deadly. The question that faces us as blackbelly breeders is
just what the actual requirement for copper is. The African origins and
the goatlike eating habits of the animals should be an indicator that we
are dealing with an intermediate animal - somewhere between goat and
sheep - in their nutritional requirements. Their pigmentation suggests
that they start with a requirement that is six times higher than a white
sheep.
I do not recommend that people go out and start supplementing their
sheep with copper willy-nilly. Because there is no written document
that tells me precisely what the trace mineral requirements are for my
blackbelly sheep, I have accepted the challenge that my environment has
thrust upon me and my flock and am running the the problem to ground. I
have educated myself, I have had all my feeds evaluated. I am having my
water analyzed for minerals. I have harvested and tested livers for
metal toxicology. Careful copper supplementation has improved the
overall health status of my flock, but I do not believe they are yet
optimal.
In view of the failing agricultural soils upon which we raise our
forages, it would be a smart move for anyone with inexplicable health
issues in their flock to start testing forages and water, and educate
themselves about the need for balanced elements, and not just protein
and energy.
Liver toxicology tests also revealed to me that my sheep are borderline
in their calcium
