This work aimed at studing the effect of dietary cation-anionic balance (DCAB) in calcium balance and serum concentration in Santa Ines breed sheep. To control the effect of animals’ initial weight blocks were used as experimental design. Five treatments with increasing DCAB levels (-160, -40, 140, 250 and 500mEq/kg of dry matter) and five repetitions each were tested in 25 males. DCAB affected calcium metabolism of Santa Ines breed males. As DCAB lowered, serum calcium increased. Anionic diets raised urinary calcium excretion, however calcium retention wasn’t affected.
anion; cation; calcium; DCAB; pH
