The orotic acid concentration in the blood, milk, and urine of dairy cows fed with urea supplemented diet

: The experiment was performed on 4 cows Black and White, 550-650 kg of body weight, before and during 100 days after parturition. Two cows were fed with control and the next two with urea supplemented diet (urea-N constituting about 20% of total N in ration, 13% c.p. in DM). In cows fed with urea supplemented diet the considerable but unequal increase of urinary orotic acid excretion (particularly evident in first 30 days of lactation) was observed. There was however no influence of urea ration on the level of orotic acid in milk. The average orotic acid level in blood plasma (1.14 +/- 0.71 mumol X l-1 and 0.94 +/- 0.22 mumol X l-1 for control and urea fed cow respectively) established 0.01 and 0.001 of the average orotic acid concentration in urine and milk, respectively. Feeding with urea ration did not affect the level of orotic and UMP but increased the uridine concentration in blood plasma. During the parturition the lowest level of orotic acid in blood plasma, milk and urine was observed.